Linky Responsibility
The Boston Globe reports that Gene Robinson, under consideration to become the first openly gay Episcopelian bishop is “affiliated” with an organization called Outright that has links on pages that “can lead users to webistes that some consider pornographic.”
Is there anything we can do to squelch this particular purity test right now? Forget the fact that Robinson hasn’t had anything to do with Outright for five or six years, according to The Globe. Forget that the branch he was affiliated with had nothing to do with that particular web site. The point is that when we link to a site (not to a particular page within that site), we can’t be hung for everything that site might choose to put up.
Let me be more specific: I happily link to, say, Halley in my blogroll. This doesn’t mean that I agree with everything Halley says. Lord knows what Halley is going to say! And Lord bless her for it!
And let me be more specifically specific: the Howard Dean blog has a blogroll. It is a 100% stone certainty that some of those linked blogs are going to say things that will turn the Governor’s stomach. It’s just bound to happen. And Lord love him for it.
I am just waiting for the first media report — prompted by Republican “oppo” research — about some outrageous claim made by someone the Dean weblog links to. And then we’ll have a choice. Either we Americans will teach ourselves that links are just links or we’ll shut down the conversation. And which way makes our democracy stronger? I think I actually know the answer to that one.
From the Presidential Debates of 2004:
President Bush: And isn’t it a fact, Governor Dean, that your web page that you’re so proud of linked to a web site that is in favor of legalizing marijuana and that called the underage Olsen Twins “hot pre-babes”?
Governor Dean: George, have you ever in your life used a browser?
Categories: Uncategorized dw
they’re not pre-babes, just pre-legal babes!
I find it hard to believe that Governor Dean would call a sitting Resident by his first name. Let’s have some respect for the office the current holder stole from its rightful occupant!
(Oh, and to be fair, the Resident may not have ever used a browser, but he did have an AOL account before he stole into the White House. He gave it up when he was advised that even his personal e-mail to his personal account would become part of his permanent record.)
Link games aside, Gov. Dean conducted himself pretty well on Larry King Live last night, despite the fact that he was nervous as hell at the beginning, but improved considerably when he got going on issues.
The ‘net is going to be the important medium this time around, but only if it can be used to reach the previously disaffected 20-30 year olds and get them to the polls. However, TV is still vitally important to the vast majority of Americans who *do* vote, and the good doctor needs to melt his “just got out of the freezer” look a little sooner in the interview. But with CNN loving you this early in the race, it’s one helluvan endorsement.
OTOH, he certainly does not convey the typical politician’s phoney “I feel your pain” (in)sincerity.
$0.02 worth from the anti-environment…
Surely the Republicans are more vulnerable to a phony linking charge. Any link to a right-wing site is sure to turn up something they wouldn’t want talked about — publicly.
JLaw