Jane Hamsher from
Firedoglake was part of this morning's online Washington Post forum on "blogger ethics" (I kid you not!) as it pertained to the recent brouhaha over the Post's deleting (and restoring and deleting and restoring) comments regarding ombudsman Deborah Howell's inability to admit her mistake re: Abramhoff giving money to "both" Dems and Repugs.
Hamsher's behind-the-scenes peek at editor Jim Brady's manipulation of the discussion is quite an eye opener!...
Hamsher writes:
...Brady had the keys to the system and he used them. There were dozens of questions on a screen that was quite complex which any of the participants could respond to at any time. They chose what questions got through and when each thread was closed down and published. Brady gave himself the last word many times, goaded me for a response and then closing it before I could answer, despite the fact that I was asking in the accompanying "chat" box for a chance to do so. Neither would he give substandial, meaningful answers to questions I posed to him.
If nobody responded to a question, it didn't appear online. In addition to tut-tutting about unruly commenters, Glenn Reynolds' job was to give one of those content-loaded "hey-indeedy" answers to questions that were hostile to me just to make sure they made it online. And you know what? That's fine. I'm a big girl, I get worse than that every day in the comments here and I knew what I was setting myself up for when I agreed to engage in this particular dialogue. The chance that we all got to give voice to our criticisms was well worth it.
But the fact remains that the real debate is between me and Brady; Rosen and Jarvis were filler and Reynolds was just there as a junkyard dog. And because of all the filler, Brady was able to avoid getting pressed on a story that he has had a great deal of success fobbing off to the media which has innumerable holes if anybody with any technical sophistication were to really press him. As one reader commented, "Listen to Brady try to defend himself, basically sounding like a 15 year old telling his parents the smell on his breath isn't marijuana, and the case is there that Howell deserved all she got and ten times worse."
Take a look at the transcript here. Notice Brady's hit-and-run tactics? The curious non-responses from Hamsher? At later points, she does manage to get her licks in, but never in direct opposition to Brady, who never gives her a direct answer.
Truly Wanker of the Day material!