There are lines that should never be crossed, and Kurt Greenbaum, journalist and director, apparently by default, of social media for the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch crossed one.
Kurt Greenbaum blogs at STL Social Media Guy, and is the online news director and now director of social media. On his hard-hitting blog, Greenbaum asked readers: “What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever eaten?” A not especially clever person wrote, “Pussy.” Harhar. A moderator deleted the comment. Wanting his voice to be heard, the nit-wit posted again, “Pussy.”
Even in St. Louis, this doesn’t pass for wit. But there are two ever-ready solutions to comments that are deemed inappropriate. Delete them and/or ban the commenter. It’s both a matter of policy at the STL Social Media Guy blog, and a matter of fundamental etiquette in the blogosphere. The former is what official people care about. The latter is what anyone claiming to be a social media guy would recognize as a foundational part of the online code.
We are not the school marms of the digital world, running back to the bad boy’s mommy (or employer in this case) to tell how nasty he was. But Kurt wasn’t aware of this, and his inner school marm couldn’t handle either the policy or etiquette. Not only did he do the unthinkable, but he was proud enough of being a rat that he posted about it.
We are not the school marms of the digital world, running back to the bad boy’s mommy (or employer in this case) to tell how nasty he was. But Kurt wasn’t aware of this, and his inner school marm couldn’t handle either the policy or etiquette. Not only did he do the unthinkable, but he was proud enough of being a rat that he posted about it.
A few minutes later, the same guy posted the same single-word comment again. I deleted it, but noticed in the WordPress e-mail that his comment had come from an IP address at a local school. So I called the school. They were happy to have me forward the e-mail, though I wasn’t sure what they’d be able to do with the meager information it included.
About six hours later, I heard from the school’s headmaster. The school’s IT director took a shine to the challenge. Long story short: Using the time-frame of the comments, our website location and the IP addresses in the WordPress e-mail, he tracked it back to a specific computer. The headmaster confronted the employee, who resigned on the spot.
For those of you who comment but don’t realize that blogging programs provide those of us with our hands on the wheel a lot more information about who you are and where you’re from, we know stuff. We just don’t tell. Even if you are annoying, or worse, we don’t tell.
I take no issue with Kurt’s decision to delete the comment, if for being a bad joke if nothing else. As bad words go, “pussy” is hardly the worst around, but I can understand completely that he wanted to keep a newspapers blog clean and wholesome. There are a lot of truly nasty, angry and vulgar comments made online, and I’m not particularly partial to them either.
But don’t be a rat. Delete, delete, delete, but don’t rat. Yes, it can prove to be a lot of work to keep up with the nasty commenters. If it’s too much for you, then either shut it down or find someone who can handle the burden. But don’t be a rat.
Kurt was apparently shocked to learn that his cleansing of the blogosphere didn’t go over well. Rather than applause for his “fixing” this miscreants wagon, he was castigated by his readers. I mean hammered, one after another. And so, in true school marm form, Kurt tried to rehabilitate himself by rationalization; explaining away his incredibly poor choice.
I take no issue with Kurt’s decision to delete the comment, if for being a bad joke if nothing else. As bad words go, “pussy” is hardly the worst around, but I can understand completely that he wanted to keep a newspapers blog clean and wholesome. There are a lot of truly nasty, angry and vulgar comments made online, and I’m not particularly partial to them either.
But don’t be a rat. Delete, delete, delete, but don’t rat. Yes, it can prove to be a lot of work to keep up with the nasty commenters. If it’s too much for you, then either shut it down or find someone who can handle the burden. But don’t be a rat.
Kurt was apparently shocked to learn that his cleansing of the blogosphere didn’t go over well. Rather than applause for his “fixing” this miscreants wagon, he was castigated by his readers. I mean hammered, one after another. And so, in true school marm form, Kurt tried to rehabilitate himself by rationalization; explaining away his incredibly poor choice.
Did I overreact? Maybe I did. I am constantly frustrated by the difficulty of dealing with this kind of language. And in this case, I was motivated by three things.For a journalist, Kurt woefully fails to connect the dots. All of this three motivations may be absolutely true, but none either explains or justifies his taking the affirmative step of reaching out to the school to rat out the commenter. Most disturbing is his third “thing”, that it was “easy”. “Easy” is not the bar by which we measure right and wrong. Indeed, it’s a common excuse by those who commit crimes, as if doing wrong because it was “easy” somehow mitigates the offense.
First, this came from a school. I didn’t know if it came from an employee, a guest or a student. But I viewed it as a “teachable moment” and a chance, perhaps, to nip something in the bud, to engage the community to help me. I didn’t anticipate that the reader would resign.
Second, the comment was posted, deleted and intentionally posted a second time by the same person. Too much time had elapsed between posts for it to be a mistake or an accident. The reader was determined to post it.
Third, it was easy. As I said, I didn’t have to dig for the school’s information. It was readily available on the e-mail alert. Had it not been there, I may have deleted the comment and moved on.
Many of the Social Media Guy’s readers were subsequently offended by his calling the commenter a “jackass” in a twit, calling it flagrant hypocrisy. I don’t see it that way, as the twit was a different medium and a personal expression, rather than the language used on the newspaper’s blog. The rules for commenters differ from those for the blogger, as commenters are guests in the blogger’s home. But while I wouldn’t attack Kurt’s choice of word, the spirit behind it shows his lack of understanding of the damage he’s done to unfettered speech. Did you lose your job for calling a reader a jackass, Kurt? Are epithets fine only when you deem them acceptable?
Kurt Greenbaum has done grievous harm to the blogosphere. While no one has the right to see their comment up in lights, no one expects their confidences to be broken by the affirmative act of disclosure. Kurt’s attempt to excuse his misguided conduct entirely ignores the conceded fact that he reached out to the commenter’s source to rat him out. He’s a rat. He obtained confidential information and disclosed it. It doesn’t matter how hard or easy it was, or how much he was offended by the rather benign word “pussy”. Kurt Greenbaum is a rat.
Two lessons are taught by this school marm.
1. No one can trust their confidences to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
2. Kurt Greenbaum has no place in social media.
It appears that he was right about this being a “teachable moment,” though I doubt this was the lesson he was shooting for. I can only hope that the teacher involved was god-awful, as it would be terrible shame if Kurt’s inexcusable conduct deprived students of a good teacher. One whose worst fault was a mediocre sense of humor.
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I think I am actually okay with Greenbaum’s actions. According to the St. Louis Post website
“Compliance with Legal Process
We may disclose personal information if we or one of our affiliated companies is required by law to disclose personal information, or if we believe in good faith that such action is necessary to comply with a law or some legal process, to protect or defend our rights and property, to protect against misuse or unauthorized use of our web sites or to protect the personal safety or property of our users or the public.”
Whoever posted the offensive language from a school computer need to be held accountable. In the instant case, we had and employee who resigned after being confronted with using a school computer outside the scope of his employment. Most employers restrict electronic freedom.
Am I missing something here?
I think you are. I don’t think that somebody posting an offcolor remark on the website is either illegal, or unsafe for anybody.
If the school utterly forbids — both in practice and theory — all computer usage beyond what’s necessary for the job, that wouldn’t be Greenbaum’s issue to clean up.
What the guy did was annoy a reporter; he shouldn’t have been embarrassed into losing his job over it, and, if he should have been, a reporter — who, in the course of his job is often keeping things far more distasteful discreet — didn’t do himself, his paper, or his profession any favors by tattling.
I hear what you are saying, but respectfully differ. If my child were attending that school, or if I were a taxpayer in St. Louis, I would feel that the employee was literally stealing by fooling around on blogs instead of working.
Newspapers should be chomping at the bit to protect First Amendment rights. They should bend over backward to not reveal identities behind anonymous comments. The best ones wouldn’t reveal the identity behind an anonymous comment even in response to lawful process; they would at least move to quash a subpoena for this kind of information. To proactively turn it over? Completely, utterly unacceptable.
Well, I have had kids in public schools, and I am a taxpayer, and it’s neither a shock nor offensive to me that employees in the public schools, like employes everywhere, engage in a bit of recreation at work. In fact, I think that attempts to eliminate that (as opposed to keep it reasonable) are utterly horrible for productivity, and encourage good employees to (granted, not all that often in this economy) leave, leaving behind surly, frightened, angry employees who will worry that getting caught taking an occasional unofficial break will get them forced out.
I think that’s bad for everybody.
Sure, if the guy, instead of doing his job, spends all or most of his day fooling around, he oughta go — but the only sensible way is for that to be looked at by the folks he works for, not by a busybody at a website he was unwittingly foolish enough to spend a few minutes visiting.
Mr. King makes an excellent point. I still question whether or not there is an expectation of privacy when commenting on a public forum. It is not at all the same as being a confidential source to a reporter.
With all due respect, you might want to know but it’s up to the school to audit computer use, not up to an editor to snitch on possible misuse.
I see nothing in the TOS or privacy policy that either requires or permits Greenbaum to do what he did.
Bloggers and professional journalists should be protecting the privacy of online commenters – even those who engage in offensive speech. As a blogger who had to go to court to protect the privacy of online commenters, I am totally appalled and disgusted by his actions.
Jameson,
You’ve expressed your opinion, and others have tried to point out the error of your ways. You misunderstand when you sugget that they haven’t satisfied you. They aren’t here to meet your approval, but have tried to explain why your opinion is wrong. You aren’t a lawyer. You don’t have experience online. Yet you feel compelled to assert your views three times now. Why?
Your latest is that you qustion whether there is an expectation of privacy online. Seriously, who cares? Those of us with experience online have no issue, and you with 12 minutes online think otherwise. What makes you think your “question” matters to anyone other than yourself? You expressed your opinion the first time. We got it. It’s wrong, and you’re the only one too thick to realize it, but that’s fine. Now stop.
You had this problem before, and I tried to explain to you that there comes a time to stop. You’ve once against exceeded the time. Stop.
If you disagree, start your own blog and write all about your thoughts at as much length as you want. But here, learn when to stop.
Just so we are clear: I have never said anything designed to belittle or insult anyone on your blog or anywhere else. If I offended someone, I apologize.
I will never, however, blindly agree with you or anyone else simply because I have not attended law school. I find it bizarre that you choose to stifle a dissenting opinion, and wish to silence a person who asks simple questions about the expectation of privacy in public forum.
You didn’t offend anyone. You are monopolizing a thread, something that commenters shouldn’t do. Nor does anyone care if you agree. Trust me, no one in the world will lose a minute of sleep based on your opinion. You appear to have some narcissism issues.
Nor is this stifling dissent. You had your say. You don’t get to say it over and over and over on my blawg. And ironically, this is why your opinion carries so little weight, as you don’t have the experience online to justify having an opinion, no less one that differs from people who know and understand far more than you.
Finally, this isn’t a public forum. This is my forum. You have no rights here whatsoever, and comment only by virtue of my largesse. Are you getting any of this?
@Jameson Johnson
How do you know the teacher wasn’t on a break, empty class block. For that matter how do you know it was a teacher? No one else does. And if he was then so what. He obviously wasn’t doing it while teaching, so he had to be on a break of some kind, his time, not the school’s time. Most teachers I have had experience of are knowledgeable, dedicated, educated and generally I’d say far too good for the kind of abuse they have to put up with from some idiots in the US. They also work way more hours than they are paid for, particularly in areas like lesson planning and extracurricular activities. Just for the record I’m not a teacher, nor do I have any in my family but I am greatly impressed with the ones who’ve taught my kids. You on the other hand sound like a sanctimonious, self righteous, narcissistic, moralistic, holier than thou bonehead. Sure your real name isn’t Greenbaum? And as for the straw man argument that “schools” are some sort of different area because we “have to think of the children” it’s bollocks. My kids get their morality from our family, our society and their own intelligence, and if push came to shove they’re well capable of dealing with the word “pussy”. Go back to Fox News.