Right, right: and we should all dress up in suits to fly anywhere, our doctors should make house calls, and we should all go to church regularly on Sunday. And maybe all “real” journalists ought to have licenses so the rude interlopers won’t spoil everything with their exposes.
Ask Joe The Plumber and many that watched the pubic outing of everything about him if using real names when challenging a political figure is the way to restore decency to political discourse.
Ask the people chased by Elliot Spitzer over the years if they dared speak out in public against him.
Ask the people who supported Prop 8 in California (I didn’t) and whose names are now due to be disclosed in public if they are happy about it. Or just ask the waitress at a local bar who donated money to Prop 8 and triggeerd a boycott of the bar.
Anonymity has been reognized as a powerful tool for truth and a shield from abusive officials–from Ben Franklin’s anonymous submission lampooning a local politician to Deep Throat. Mongoose has it right: stripping anonymity is motivated only by a desire to haul commentators out where they can be harassed and humiliated.
