Liberal Blogger Cyber Pantsed by Spiteful Ed Whelan

Outing one’s ideological opponents is classless, nasty behavior.

It’s wrong when it’s gay Republican politicos being outed by a vicious liberal filmmaker. And it’s wrong when it’s a pseudonymous liberal blogger being unmasked by a conservative bully who got his widdle feelings hurt.

Ed Whelan, blogger at Bench Memos and The Corner, prompted an intense blogospheric kerfuffle over the  weekend when he performed a juvenile stunt as part of his escalating blog war with the liberal blogger known as “publius.”  Chafing at publius’ snarky criticism and semi-catty jibes, Whelan decided to shut down any hope for civil debate by yanking down publius’ virtual pants and exposing him to the world.  Just a quick click on the “publish” button, and publius’ pseudonymity was permanently undermined.

Outing has three main goals: to inflict pain, to undermine credibility, and most importantly, to silence the target.

Whelan thought that revealing publius’ true identity was a  trump card that would send publius running for the hills, effectively silencing him and punishing him for that most ungodly of offenses: being irritating. Vindictive and entirely lacking in common decency, Whelan elected to reveal publius’ name and place of employment even after publius made clear to Whelan via email that he valued his pseudonymity for both personal and professional reasons.  See Instapundit, The Moderate Voice, Right Wing Nut House, and Little Miss Attila for more on the firestorm that ensued.

While publius could not have reasonably expected his identity to remain a secret indefinitely, that doesn’t justify Whelan’s shameful behavior on this matter.  He could have disengaged from the debate by ignoring publius or he could have continued to defend his position.  Instead Whelan chose to kick class to the curb.

Commenting on Barney Frank’s use of the word “homophobe,” Ed Whelan recently wrote, “It’s intended to cut off serious discussion, not to promote it. It doesn’t belong in public discourse.”

Kind of like outing an opponent against his wishes, Ed?

Update: After two days of being skewered by bloggers from the left and right, Ed Whelan offers his apologies to publius.

Published by Jenn Q. Public on June 8, 2009 at 11:40 pm

Filed Under The Blogosphere

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