Blog Whoring and Me-Too Blogging

Dan Riehl has a worthwhile post this morning on "Iconoclastic Bloggers."  He defines an iconoclast as a person who attacks settled beliefs or institutions.  I like that.

I like even more what he said about blogger cliques and groups:

"Still, cliques and groups around certain larger blogs have grown up, along with the professional sites and aspects of it."

A light went on in my head.  Dan had described a phenomenon that annoys the hell out of me, though I hadn't fully verbalized or defined it.  Cliques!  I have simply referred to the phenomenon as "Me-Too Blogging."

"Me-too" blogging is where one assumes a role in the king blogger's court and begs for links and attention and indulges in throw-me-a-bone bootlicking. "Me-too" bloggers are beholden to bigger bloggers for traffic they haven't actually earned, and so compromise their principles and honesty in order to retain their benefactor's good graces. Some people have called this "blog-whoring," and the description is apt.  It means you must defend your benefactor, even when he or she is wrong or has done something unethical.

Also, Clique-Blogging is a form of group-think.  Riehl also pointed out:

Group-think is the enemy of freedom and I detest it, in its various forms.

Me-Too Blogging is compromised blogging.  Don't do it.

Updates on the Riehl-McCain Investigation of Jesse Griffin

Dan Riehl has learned that Jesse Griffin will not be returning to work as a Teacher's Assistant for the coming school year. Apparently, Griffin has known for some time that he wouldn't and claims that he resigned to pursue other projects. However, he didn't reveal that to his fans and blog readers, and allowed Jeanne Devon to make a fool of herself opining that the lawsuit would somehow terrorize the kindergartners where Griffin used to work.

See Dan's current post on the matter here.

Update: Stacy McCain has posted the latest update at The Other McCain:

EXIT, LYING: SCHOOL'S OUT FOR
ANTI-PALIN BLOGGER GRIFFIN

ANCHORAGE KINDERGARTEN AIDE
RESIGNS FOLLOWING DISCLOSURE

Read it here.

Dan Riehl and Stacy McCain Publish Their Investigation of Jesse Griffin

Dan Riehl and Stacy McCain have been researching Jesse Griffin of the "Palin Divorce" rumor. You can read Riehl's report here. McCain didn't write a report so much as he wrote an email to Griffin, which was published here. There wasn't much yet in Riehl's report but there may be more later on.

Riehl's message was this:

1. Jesse Griffin has published some vulgar material on his blog (text not photos) that uses profanity, makes ugly and obscene slurs at Sarah Palin and in one case, advocates homosexuality to avoid service in Iraq.

In other words, Griffin is a walking monument to bad taste, but we knew that already. The slurs against Palin may be useful in court, but that's for the Palin attorney to decide.

2. Jesse Griffin's MySpace page makes his identity obvious and it also links to his blog, "Immoral Minority," so Griffin moaning about how he's been "outed" rings a bit false. If he didn't want people to know his real name, then why did he do such a poor job of hiding it? This is the most substantive and useful point in Riehl's report.

3. Since Griffin's MySpace page is easily accessible on the Internet, his students could potentially find it and then follow the link to his blog, where they would read sexually explicit language and profanity. Since kindergartners are around the age of 5, I doubt that many of them are that computer literate so I doubt that there is much to worry about.

Update: Dan Riehl has explained at his blog that the above is just the opening shot. There is more to come. Stay tuned.