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Anonymous Blogger Outed By Politician
Snoskred writes with the story of a blogger who chose to remain pseudonymous, who has been outed by an Alaskan politician in his legislative newsletter. Alaska Rep. Mike Doogan had been writing bizarre emails to people who emailed him, and the Alaskan blogger "Mudflats" was one of those who called him on it. (Mudflats first began getting noticed after blogging about Sarah Palin from a local point of view.) Doogan seems to have developed a particular itch to learn who Mudflats is, and he finally found out, though he got her last name wrong, and named her in his official newsletter. The Huffington Post is one of the many outlets writing about the affair. The blogger happens to be Democrat — as is Doogan — but that is immaterial to the question of the right to anonymity in political speech. Does an American have the right to post political opinion online anonymously? May a government official breach that anonymity absent a compelling state interest?
Did he find out using tools available to the ordinary citizen and not because some third party violated a trust?
Did he find out because some third party released information they shouldn't have?
Using tools only available to those with special permission, like a licensed private investigator?
Using tools only available by virtue of him being a government official or employee?
If the last three, then no, privacy should be preserved unless there is a court order requiring release or a clear public interest in releasing the information. If necessary, civil court action should be allowed to recover damages, or, if there's a threat of outing, injunctions.
If it was the first one, then the person wasn't as careful with his information as he thought and I'm a bit less sympathetic. In this case, the decent thing to do is respect the privacy of the individual, but the individual's only recourse should be to shame the leaker for his demonstrated lack of human decency.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
I agree with this. Your anonymity is yours to maintain, and as long as the government official doesn't abuse his office to discover who the blogger is there's no problem. Just as you are free to expose secrets of government officials (like John Edwards' love child), government officials are free to expose yours as a private citizen.