Grog's Gamut outing
Those of you following the ongoing saga of the questionable media coverage of the election may have been aware of the blogger Grog. His comments on twitter and on his blog Grog's Gamut were a key part of the larger public outcry about journalists refusing to ask politicins questions about policy.
He was revealed by The Australian newspaper last week to be a Canberra public servant. Ostensibly they chose to out him because the Managing Director of the ABC, Mark Scott, mentioned him in a speech and implied that the online controversy prompted them to rethink the ABC's election coverage.
Grog's response to the outing is worth reading. As is some of the surrounding commentary in the blogosphere. Margaret Simmons has posted some particularly worthwhile comments about the ethical arguments for and against the outing as well as reposting comments from Dr Dennis Muller.
Over all I'd agree with the comments from Simmons and Muller. It might not be strictly breaking any codes of ethics, but it was mean and unnecessarily so. The Oz isn't winning any high moral ground here.
He was revealed by The Australian newspaper last week to be a Canberra public servant. Ostensibly they chose to out him because the Managing Director of the ABC, Mark Scott, mentioned him in a speech and implied that the online controversy prompted them to rethink the ABC's election coverage.
Grog's response to the outing is worth reading. As is some of the surrounding commentary in the blogosphere. Margaret Simmons has posted some particularly worthwhile comments about the ethical arguments for and against the outing as well as reposting comments from Dr Dennis Muller.
Over all I'd agree with the comments from Simmons and Muller. It might not be strictly breaking any codes of ethics, but it was mean and unnecessarily so. The Oz isn't winning any high moral ground here.