Who links to me?
I am going to try at least. By now most have heard about this story where left of center blogger Deb Frisch threatened physical harm at worst, or at best wished it on Protein Wisdom’s author Jeff Goldstein, his wife and their child. (Most noticeably singling out their child for abuse).Of course this set off a firestorm on the right, and now a reaction from the left.
I like to agree with people when I can so let me agree with Maha in that she is not Deb Frisch’s keeper. I also like her blogroll rule. If you are willing to recommend someone else’s blog by placing them on your blogroll you should be willing to take some heat if they put their foot in their mouth or as in this case much worse.
Even if Malkin sincerely believes she had no part in the suicide, a decent person would have written something along the lines of “This individual I blogged about a couple of months ago has killed herself, and even though I disagreed with what this woman was doing I extend my condolences to her friends and family.
While I think it is ridiculous to suggest Michelle Malkin had anything to do with this woman killing herself (she obviously had bigger problems) in most cases it is wrong to speak ill of the dead even if you disagreed with their politics (Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Mao, etc excepted).
Some on the left like Maha and others are saying they have never heard of Ms. Frisch and her South (west) Paw blog.
Well checking her site meter it looks like Ms. Frisch is averaging 5,700 hits a day with today well over 10k hits already. I am sure her average has spiked due to this controversy. Still looking at Maha’s meter her blog is averaging only 1,800 hits per day. Maha has been around a lot longer but Ms. Frisch’s blog is definitely not some unknown lil voice out in the internet wilderness.
Those on the left pointing to assorted right wing whackos as any sort of “you started it first†or “they do it too†justification are as dead wrong as they can be. What this woman did was wrong period.
Kind of like family you don’t always get to pick your team mates in politics. Like it or not lefties Deb Frisch is on your team and does reflect poorly on you. It makes you look better when you condemn her actions/words. Making any kind of excuses for her contemptible behavior or dodges reflect poorly on you.
It goes without saying but if I don’t say it someone will surely point it out that this cuts both ways.
When something like this happens and it happens a lot on the interweb where people forget the whole world can read what they are saying, or they are just plain crazy; you really have two choices, ignore the story and stay “above it all†or once you acknowledge it take a position and be clear about that position.
Taking my own advice I will say what Ms. Frisch has done is reprehensible, and she deserves to be punished to the fullest extent of the law be that civil or criminal. The fact that she has lost her job (she claims she has resigned) as a professor at University of Arizona is a very good thing and any future employer should think long and hard before hiring someone as obviously disturbed as Ms. Frisch.
The left of center bloggers could and should see this as an opportunity given to them by Ms. Frisch’s comments and the rights reaction to them as an opportunity to distance them selves from such violent and vile rhetoric; maybe even attempt to use it as a catalyst to a return of civil discourse. I know, I know, I am far too optimistic to even say such a thing but I had to try.
Others Blogging this story: Liberty Street praises Captain Ed not only for his response to this story but his commentary in general.
although I almost always disagree with his opinions, I have noticed that he is consistently fair and measured in the way he expresses his opinions.
Of course Captain Ed being Measured as ever:
I’d condemn this kind of sick, perverted threat if it was aimed at anyone in the blogosphere. Nor do I think this is indicative of anyone’s politics; I’ve had plenty of debate even with hard-Left bloggers and commenters without ever encountering anything like this.
***Update***
Skippy tell us that Deb has been blogging for less than a year. But I just found this post dated Feb 14 2005 browsing around her site. Also Maha says no one was reading her blog until this happened. Again using the link Skippy provided it appears her readership averaged between 500 and 1000 hits per day for some time with larger spikes going back as early as October of 05. I could be reading the chart completely wrong and if am, someone please correct me.
all of this is completely irrelevant to my main point of course but thats how it goes in the blogosphere.
***Update***
Maha has pointed out I was reading the chart wrong. It looks like Ms. Frisch was averaging 16 - 35 hits per day before she wen’t completely bonkers. Skippy to his credit has admitted his error as well.
Linking Posts
Thanks for the kind words, but you need to go back to Frisch’s site meter and look at long-range patterns. Until this controversy came along she was getting hardly any traffic at all. It’s absurd to look at her traffic for the past couple of days and conclude she was any presence at all on the blogosphere.
Skippy figured out that, before this little dust-up, Frisch’s blog had been linked to 12 times over the past year.
Ms. Frisch’s blog IS definitely some unknown lil voice out in the internet wilderness.
Comment by maha � July 9, 2006 @ 1:38 pm
[…] I bring this up because this fellow wrote, Well checking her site meter it looks like Ms. Frisch is averaging 5,700 hits a day with today well over 10k hits already. I am sure her average has spiked due to this controversy. Still looking at Maha’s meter her blog is averaging only 1,800 hits per day. Maha has been around a lot longer but Ms. Frisch’s blog is definitely not some unknown lil voice out in the internet wilderness. […]
Pingback by The Mahablog » Frisch Follow Up � July 9, 2006 @ 2:10 pm
[…] The Real Ugly American […]
Pingback by Flopping Aces » Blog Archive » When Lefties Attack, And Attack Some More � July 9, 2006 @ 3:08 pm
hi rua, i had issued a correction on my post independent of your research, apparently just after maha posted my opinion that frisch was blogging for less than a year (i also issued a correction on maha’s comment section and ceded the point to you.
Comment by skippy � July 9, 2006 @ 11:25 pm
Thanks Skip. It looks like I have read her traffic chart incorectly as well. So we all make mistakes.
Comment by The Ugly American � July 10, 2006 @ 8:44 am