The dark side of blogging

If there was any doubt about the desirability of Movable Type’s forthcoming TypeKey authentication service for blog comments, what’s been happening to Kathryn Cramer over the last few days should provide ample justification:

“There’s been a lot of sanctimonious criticism, to which I will not link, about the inadequacy of Kos’s apology. Does anyone really think that if he had apologized and withdrawn his statement, all would be forgiven? Ask Kathryn Cramer. She went too far in her coverage of the Fallujah killings, and posted some unwarranted speculation. In response, she got vile pornography and death threats posted to her comments section. She took the errant post down and apologized profusely, and the hostile comments increased – because, apparently, taking the post down meant that she was trying to hide. She’s continuing to receive violent threats, some of them directed at her children.”

(from Respectful Of Otters, via Electrolite)

Parallels between TypeKey and the US-Visit programme are duly noted.