There’s an inside story getting some attention in the Blogosphere today: popular Daily Kos blogger Armando’s full name and place of employment has been revealed by Stephen Spruell of National Review Online and, as a consequence, he may stop blogging. “Reveal” is, perhaps, too strong a word since, as was noted by James Joyner, the information was readily obtainable via an obvioius Google search.
The remainder of my comments are a reproduction of a comment I made on the post linked above.
I have nothing against Armando. Or for, for that matter. It seems to me this is a tempest in a teapot.
My following remarks are general in nature and not directed against Armando specifically.
First, if professional decorum demands a particular public demeanor, pseudonymity is not the answer: you’re still obligated to maintain the demeanor in public. Second, if one’s employer has a policy against blogging, pseudonymity doesn’t solve that problem, either.
Both of these cases are instances of deceit.
I think that there are legitimate reasons for pseudonymity. For example, when the creative effect of your blog requires it, e.g. “The Manolo” or “Methuselah’s Daughter”. Or when you simply wouldn’t get a hearing without it, e.g. “George Elliotâ€.
We have entered an era in which there is an extraordinary ability to collect and collate information and, consequently, real privacy is vanishing. This was predicted some 30 years ago by Roger Zelazny in his “Hangman” series of stories. The World Wide Web is an extremely large public square and, when you post a notice in it, don’t be surprised when people notice.
I think it’s also reasonable to maintain bloggy anonymity if you think real-world colleagues and/or employers may hold your opinions against you, c.f. neo-neocon. There doesn’t seem to be any way of knowing if this is the case for Armando. In any event, it doesn’t appear that he tried very hard to maintain his anonymity.
Hey, Armando could have gone to work for another law firm. Instead, he chose the $$ of his corporate clients.
And, it’s FAR MORE than just Wal-Mart. First, Armando is a partner, not just a staff attorney, at McConnell Valdes. So, all the company’s clients are his, in a sense.
And those clients include:
1. Altria (nee Philip Morris)
2. Multiple members of Big Pharma
3. GE Capital
Read more about it on my blog. In fact, to me, this raises the question of whether he was trying to protect his anonymity not for any reasons related to his blogging per se, but to hide it from his corporate clients.