Obama, Throwing Heat

"I arrived home and found a comment on my post that echoed his opinions closely under the name Mary. [She called his post "disgraceful" and "offensive."] I looked up the IP and found it came from a Politico-related company. I responded to Mary and noted the source -- and the irony that this appeared to be a person at Politico misrepresenting herself. Calderone emailed me saying he did not write the comment -- which I hadn't said -- but acknowledged that a colleague did. He then left a comment on my post -- which is how I would have preferred this discussion to have happened, in public. I looked at the IP address and it was identical to Mary's. So I then asked him point-blank whether he wrote Mary's comment. He said he did not and I take him at his word. I suppose the IP is the company's firewall.

"So I wrote to Politico's editor, John Harris, asking his policy and views for this post. On reporters' identity, Harris said: 'At Politico I expect reporters to identify themselves clearly as journalists when asking questions of public officials or average citizens alike. If there were exceptions to this, I would want as editor to be closely consulted about the reasons.'

"But then I was rather shocked at what he said about hidden identity in comments -- sockpuppetry: 'My preference is that if Politico staff are going to engage in debates about journalism they do so with name attached. But the case of leaving comments on a blog or submitting a question to an on-line chat strikes me as not exactly involving sacred principles. When I was at the Post I would frequently send in questions under various to colleagues for their on-line chats, just to be mischievous. These days with a new publication I'm too busy for that nonsense. In any event, have you never done something similar?'"

I didn't know Harris had done that!

Jarvis says he's never done such a thing, and in fact, Michael Hiltzik of the L.A. Times lost his column for leaving anonymous comments on other people's blogs.

"Mary" adds in a follow-up note to Jarvis:

"This was the first time I've ever commented on a blog and I ended up embarrassed at work as a result, which leaves me questioning whether it's worth it to join in on the great democratization of media."

I'm in the camp that believes journalists should always identify themselves. In fact, I think everyone should identify himself or herself, which would probably cut down on the bile factor. Newspapers don't print letters without people's names; why should they post anonymous comments?

Finally, I mentioned Monday that McCain had told Newsweek that he hadn't uttered a line in a speech text that the media had treated Hillary poorly. Well, it turns out that McCain had used the line. A McCain spokesman says Newsweek's rendering of the comment was "paraphrased and unclear," but the magazine says it was verbatim.