OUTING A BLOGGER

Most of us who blog tend to use pseudonyms, or nicknames, to protect our identities, not to mention our jobs and businesses, while engaging in political or social activism as best we can. Some bloggers, while we use a pseudonym, will occasionally identify themselves, like I have done.

Those of you who read this blog, you probably know that my name is Leutisha Stills, and I've made no attempt to hide that, while sharing my rage or passion in the world of politics on this blog, and on other blogs, such as DailyKos, Steve Gillard, and others.

But today, I've learned that a blogger from Tennessee, who was a passionate progressive, was engaged in a war with a local paper in Knoxville, and the publisher engaged in a pissing contest with the blogger to the point that the blogger was forced to "out" himself. Many of you know him as South Knox Bubba.

Today, South Knox Bubba shut down his blog.

It's a sad day in the blogsphere when a person has to shut down a blog that gave keen insight into political dealings in Tennessee, not to mention that SKB shared his vacations with us, and his bird blogging on Fridays. I, for one, will miss him.

What caused Bubba to shut down his blog, as far as I can tell, is that the publisher of a local newspaper in Knoxville (The Knoxville Sentinel, I think) got into an e-mail pissing contest with SKB because SKB's posts were hitting close to home regarding local real estate development and it's effects on the economy. SKB also posted a critical review of that paper's "reporters" coverage of a local nightspot, which appeared to be the straw that broke the camel's back. A developer by the name of Brian Conley, didn't care for SKB's take on Knoxville life and proceeded in an email pissing contest with him, to the point of nearly being illegal in publishing some of SKB's personal business on the blogsphere.

To avoid confusion and to protect his business, SKB "outed" himself. Shortly thereafter, and in light of all the support Bubba received from those of us in the blogsphere, while Bubba continued valiantly to blog, we all noticed his posts weren't the same; they didn't have that "bite" that they used to have. And, I guess, with the outing of himself, his business began to suffer as well, to the point he's shut down his blog.

We can't let this happen to bloggers. We need to organize and lobby to protect our rights as bloggers; we can't allow corporations to shut us down when we use our blogs for protests and informing others who are tired of the BS coming from the MSM.

I will try to find out more about Bubba's shutting down, but for now, this serves as a wake-up call to us bloggers.

OK, then.