Mudblogging…

There’s been lots of smoke out in the blogosphere recently about Marc Dann. And while Dann’s performance hasn’t been quite at the level I might have hoped, that doesn’t really excuse the kind of personal mudslinging that’s been going on sans evidence. I don’t want to link to the RABid post in question, partially because it prints all kinds of rumor without any facts to back any of it up, but it should be easy enough to find yourself if you are interested.

Matty, however, makes an interesting statement in the comments:

This story is true, but just like much of what is talked about in blogs, it is unsourced.

I have a serious problem with that. No, bloggers aren’t journalists, but it is my belief that we have a responsibility to remain factual. I, personally, have been the subject of completely untrue speculation, which has impacted me in “real life”. I have little doubt that the poster of those rumors thought he was correct, but I know he did so without any actual evidence because none of it was true.

Now, Matty has a history of posting all kinds of crazy, wild, untrue stuff. He propagated the “Strickland is gay” meme sans any kind of evidence whatsoever. His reputation as a trustworthy source is tarnished. It’s one thing to make reasonable speculation, particularly in policy areas. It’s another entirely to smear someone personally for political gain.

Even if what Matty claims is true – and I’ve seen absolutely zero evidence of it – what relevance is it to Dann’s performance as AG? This is gutter politics at its worst. And depending on how pissed off I was, I might refuse to dignify a question with an answer, if I found the question insulting enough. That’s not proof of anything.

And just to prove I’m not being partisan about this, I found Jerid’s “Trent Lott is gay” stuff silly at best. There is a perfectly legitimate thing to attack his resignation about, and that’s the new lobbying rules.

Can’t we please try to stick to factual stuff that is relevant? I know Matty is a partisan hack, so that might be a bit much to expect, but…