Something the Right and Left can agree on

What is it you ask? It's the incredible hypocrisy of this piece by Tom Grubisich of the Washington Post.
Sunshine for the Virtual Town Hall

These days we want "transparency" in all institutions, even private ones. There's one massive exception -- the Internet. It is, we are told, a giant town hall. Indeed, it has millions of people speaking out in millions of online forums. But most of them are wearing the equivalent of paper bags over their heads. We know them only by their Internet "handles" -- gotalife, runningwithscissors, stoptheplanet and myriad other inventive names.

Now both Ed Morrisey at Captain's Quarters and emptywheel at The Next Hurrah comment on Mr Grubisich's desperate hysteria but a couple of the commenters at Captain's Quarters nail it the best.

If Mr. Grubisch is so out of joint with anonymous internet postings, I assume the Washington Post will follow his urging and eschew using anonymous sources in their stories.

Posted by: Corky Boyd at May 14, 2007 8:52 AM
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Yes, the biggest threat to American society is blog commentators who post without giving their full name (and as there are lots of people with the same name, we'll need to have full addresses as well.)

Mr. Grubisch does realize that the Federalist Papers were published with pseudonyms, doesn't he?

Yet another example of the MSM realizing that it is in trouble -- due to the internet -- but unable to come up with a good response. Can't stand the competition, so hamstring them.

If an anonymous commeter has a good, well reasoned comment, I'll think about it. If a named commenter has an hysterical, hate filled rant, I'll dismiss the person's viewpoint.

Posted by: rbj at May 14, 2007 8:54 AM

Update
I see a lot more people have chimed in. Head over to this memeorandum page.