The Smeargate, The Blogosphere and the question of anonymity.

Well over the last couple of days the news has been siezed by the smeargate scandal. Briefly, Damian McBride, Head of strategy at Downing Street (now resigned) sent emails to veteran spin man Derek Draper regarding plans for a smear campaign against key tories. They would set up a new blog called ‘red rag’ which would air a mixture of facts, innuendos and malicious fictions against top tory politicians. Unfortunately for Damian, the emails fell into the hands of right wing libertarian blogger Guido Fawkes.

In one sense this whole saga seems to demonstrate the brilliance of the blogosphere as a popular and influential medium for holding politicians to account. Yet it also raises some disturbing questions about the nature of blogging. One might begin by asking why it was that the people involved were set on releasing thee smears through a blog, rather than through more conventional media. The answer to my mind is obvious. At the end of the day journalists and newspapers – however unscrupulous – do have reputations to protect. Their whole existence is tied up in the kind of stories and information they provide, and as such may have been unwilling to touch many of the fictions and innuendos with a barge pole. Blogging, by comparison, is a completely different kettle of fish. It is possible to establish a popular blog, to put stories in the public domain, and to influence events without ever revealing who you are, and without ever having to take personal responsibility what you say or imply. In some cases this is enables people to speak truths which would otherwise be unspeakable. Yet, at the same time, we should be wary of any excersize of power without accountability. And this is something us bloggers can acquire in spades.

Bloggers are very good at asserting their rights. Spend any time on the political blogosphere and you wil come across countleess complaints about draconian british libel law an the need to loosen it all up. We seem to equate our own freedom of action with the cause of liberty in general. Yet sometimes I feel that we haven’t developed a sense of responsibility capable of reflecting the blogospheres greatly increased significance.

I have banged on about this before, but alot of this was brought home to me a few months back when harry’s place posted up the internal correspondence of trade union activists which they had got hold of, full names and everything. I had a short correspondence with HP blogger David T over it, and he really, genuinely couldn’t see what the problem was. In this case of course, it wasn’t about speaking truth to power. Rather it was about interfering with peoples civil rights, namely to organise, and to do so in private if they choose.

The reality is that people’s lives can be ruined over the internet. Little people as well big people. If you go for a job interview these days, you can be pretty damn sure you will be googled. So before we get carried away in self congratulation, the smeargate scandal should give us pause for thought – about who we are, what we do, who we effect, and the kind of influence that bloggers can potentially excersize.