Darlings, Make Blogs, Not War.

The Huffington Post has fired one of its bloggers after accusing a site staff member of posting negative comments on his blog entries.

Peter Rost, a former Pfizer executive and corporate whistle-blower recently noticed that some prominently placed negative comments on his blog entries had been written by a user named "yacomink." according to The New York Times. The paper reports that in a June 20 post, Dr. Rost revealed that the person making sarcastic comments was Andy Yaco-Mink, the Huffington Post's technology manager.

Dr. Rost's "don't mess with me" response was to include Mr. Yaco-Mink's Internet protocol address and photos in his entry.

Two days later, the site's namesake and editor (and fellow Webby winner), Arianna Huffington announced that she was "withdrawing Dr. Rost's password"...blogging lingo for "your fired"

The Times reports that Mr. Yaco-Mink kept his job because the site had not had a policy forbidding employees from posting, although that policy has now been instituted.

"It seemed like his blog was becoming about personal grudges," Ms. Huffington said. "That would have been no problem if the posts were interesting."

Dr. Rost responded on his personal blog (peterrost.blogspot.com). "I thought that if anyone could accept being challenged, it would be The Huffington Post," he said in an interview. "But the first time anyone even hints, the censors go into overdrive and this liberal bastion becomes something similar to the Kremlin."

But Arianna, I thought you announced "Darlings, make blogs not war" at the Webby's. Seems like you have sparked your own little insurgent battle yourself.

Comments

[ellenweber]

There is a vast difference between saying how you differ with an idea... and showing poor tone Online. What a good idea it would be to blog tone tips as a way of getting even more of what bloggers, think out there-- while at the same time respecting others so blogs sport a far wider arena of opposing views.

When good tone is central... there are far more opposing views and far more people feel free to offer views that differ. It's not about censorship of content as much as about the vehicle of tone. Think of how much more we'd all get for our two-bits.

Great tone is far more than a lack of flame wars -- it is an acumen that susains a dialogue until it raises the best issues for all to consider and respond their take. I'd like to see tone taken seriously by bloggers as it could distinguish the great ideas if applied in posts. What do you think?

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