OP ED
The explosion of outrageous blog comments by pseudonymous individuals is changing the public face of America and rapidly becoming a public scandal.
Initially, the Internet and the World Wide Web were welcomed as tools for instantaneous communication. In addition to speed and ease of messaging, they offered one other giant advantage.
From behind the shield of an anonymous communication, employees in government or business could report abuses or criminal activity and become whistle-blowers without fear of retaliation.
Unfortunately, that bright hope largely failed to materialize. Instead, blogs, particularly those in smaller communities, have become cluttered with anonymous outpourings of denunciatory or abusive language. Almost laughably, insensitivity reaches an all-time apogee when bloggers extend condolences to bereaved family members and sign them anonymously with their pseudonyms.
Anonymity has played a distinguished role in our history. In 1787, as the new nation was writing its constitution, anti-Federalists using the pen names “Cato” and “Brutus” opposed it in letters to newspapers.
A flood of rebutting letters appeared in support of the proposed constitution, all signed “Publius.” Their authors are now known to have been Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay. Eventually, a total of 85 letters were written under the Publius pseudonym. Unlike today’s unsigned blog comments, these were each carefully reasoned missives.
Today’s anonymous comments resemble a different breed of cat: namely, the old-fashioned poison-pen letter. The bane of small-town living, the classic poison-pen letter usually contained abusive, malicious or libelous statements and accusations about the recipient or about third parties.
Sad to say, judging by the comments on some blogs, America has become a nation of anonymous cowards hiding behind pseudonyms and assailing the character of their neighbors in electronic equivalents of the poison-pen letter.
The presumed shield of anonymity in such comments, however, is illusory. Three points should be remembered: (1) Electronic communications are forever and contain identifying marks that can be traced back to the originating computer. (2) Victims of electronic libel can easily sue for sizable damages and uncover the identity of the perpetrator by court order. (3) Anonymous bloggers who make libelous defamatory statements are foolishly putting their homes, bank accounts, automobiles and other valuable assets at risk.
The Scoop on “Scoop”
Using the Croton forum originated by the former North County News, someone in Croton hiding his identity behind the pseudonym “Scoop” has busied himself for the past year making scurrilous attacks on certain persons who are unhappy with the current village administration.
“Scoop’s” pseudonym is aptly chosen and fits the content of his comments. In our household, a scoop is used to pick up dog droppings. His male gender is confirmed by his harsh attacks on the opposite sex and his reference to them as “Ladies.” We can add “thief” to “Scoop’s” coward label. His newly adopted self-laudatory slogan, brazenly pilfered from the Fox News Network, is “Scoop reports. You decide.”
Two women, Pat Moran and Roseann Schuyler, have become repeated victims of “Scoop’s” vociferous defamatory attacks because of their campaign for greater openness in local government. Croton’s current administration is notorious for delaying responses to lawful requests for information and for exhibiting an extremely patronizing attitude toward residents.
The vehemence of “Scoop’s” contemptuous attacks on the Mses. Moran and Schuyler suggests malice, an important element in libel. His dogged persistence suggests that he is also guilty of cyberstalking and cyberbullying.
His choice of victims reveals the abysmally low level of his self-protective instincts. “Scoop,” who probably couldn’t find his way to the nearest courthouse, has imprudently libeled two persons who are not only well-versed in the law but who have the added advantage of possessing the lawyer’s shingle.
“Scoop’s” Imaginary Silent Majority
More recently, “Scoop” launched an almost daily series of whining complaints about two local blogs that decline to publish his deprecatory comments. His claim is that unless these blogs accept his anonymous comments, they are only publishing “propaganda.”
In “Scoop’s” tiresome bleats he claims to speak for, or at the request of, Croton’s “silent majority,” a term widely used during the latter part of the 19th century as a euphemism for the honored dead of the Civil War. It was appropriated by Pres. Richard Nixon in a speech on Nov. 3, 1969, in which he said, "And so tonight to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans, I ask for your support."
Nixon's use of the phrase was an attempt to apply a label to those who shared his insecure fears and anxieties. His “silent majority” was largely made up of the dwindling number of Americans that supported the Vietnam War and did not participate in public discourse. Arrayed against such types was the other group, which included highly vocal students on college campuses, intellectuals, professionals and liberals.
“Scoop's” reference to Croton's silent majority is amusing. Apparently, he is unaware that both the concept and phrase are long since passé. Nixon’s silent majority of the 1960s was supplanted in the 1970s by "the forgotten middle class," by "angry white males" in the 1980s, by "soccer moms" in the 1990s, and by “NASCAR dads" in the 2000s.
Given the ubiquity of computer usage, it is hard to conceive of anyone in Croton so unable to communicate as to require the intercession of “Scoop.” Since the only genuinely silent majority in Croton lies in Bethel Cemetery, this benighted individual must be communicating with them by using a spirit medium.
Garrulous and Contentious
Croton is not only electronically the most voluble community in upper Westchester and southern Putnam counties; it is also the most conflict-ridden. Consider the following statistic. In October of 2007 the now-defunct North County News opened a series of local forums to replace its existing blog, then called the Blog Cabin. In the four and a half years since their inception, the forums of the municipalities of Cortlandt, Katonah, Ossining, Peekskill, Pleasantville, Putnam Valley and Yorktown have each racked up less than a hundred comments. Chappaqua and Mount Kisco originated no comments at all.
Contrast these low numbers with the Croton forum's astronomical output. In the same period, its contributors have posted close to 28,000 individual comments--a staggering statistic. Although many of these comments were public service messages, a major portion of the anonymous remarks are disparaging and intimidating personal attacks. Could there be something in Croton’s famous water that causes such venomous prolixity?
The sheer volume and intensity of deleterious comments must surely have an economic impact. Imagine the reaction of someone contemplating the purchase of a home in Croton or starting a retail business here and who stumbles on this outpouring of anonymous hate mail. The most likely outcome would be an instant decision not to move into such a squabbling community.
“Scoop” recently added a postscript to his repetitious demands for access to space on which to comment. It reads, “In addition, the Silent Majority has asked me to add Robert Scott's Croton Local to the list of blogs that need to open up commenting.”
“Scoop’s” complaint is that unless these blogs accept his corrosive anonymous comments, they are only publishing “propaganda.” I would remind readers in general, and “Scoop” in particular, that no responsible newspaper will publish unsigned and anonymous letters to the editor for a very sound reason. Any newspaper or other medium that publishes defamatory statements can be found as guilty of libel as the author of those statements.
Mutual respect and civility are the cement that binds the disparate parts of our society together. If “Scoop” and other cowardly types who cloak themselves in the thin garment of anonymity would append their names to their bitter opinions and stop sailing under false colors, Croton could return to being a community in which adults do what we teach our children to do: take responsibility for their actions.
The Last Word
Croton Local is a journal of fact and opinion, my journal and my opinion, tinctured with a natural skepticism that has never descended to cynicism. I have no intention of opening its pages to every anonymous windbag and electronic bully that wants in.
I say to “Scoop” anent his demand for space to attack me in my own blog: You’ll get no free ride here. This is one party you are not going to crash. If dialogue is what you seek, I suggest that you head for a local pub.
And please stop your anonymous whining and your cowardly skulking around in the shadows. You give Croton a bad name. If certain Croton blogs make you squirm, there’s an easy solution: Go elsewhere for your reading matter. Alternatively, start your own blog.
