Monday, March 30, 2009

Mudflats blogger "Alaska Muckraker" (AKM) exposed by Alaska lawmaker.

Here is the story:

An Alaskan state legislator revealed
in his constituent e-newsletter Friday the identity of an anonymous local blogger who was made famous by her criticisms of Sarah Palin during the 2008 presidential campaign season.

Mudflats blogger "Alaska Muckraker" (AKM) rose to blogger fame almost instantaneously when Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin was tapped to be John McCain's running mate, and the then anonymous blogger wrote "What is McCain Thinking? One Alaskan's Perspective" under the penname AKM. Little was known about Palin in the lower 48, and AKM provided a much-needed window throughout the campaign season into Palin's performance as governor of Alaska from a progressive viewpoint.

AKM earned the ire of Alaska Representative Mike Doogan (LD-25) of Anchorage (who happens to be a writer by trade) when AKM wrote a blog post about a rude email that Doogan sent to his constituents. He had saved up all of the emails from constituents on the Troopergate issue, and in December he responded to all of them at once, CC'ing a list of about thirty perfect strangers together in one email, telling them,

Are you people nuts? You send me -- and everybody else in the legislature, from the looks of things -- Spam and then lecture me on email etiquette -- as if there were such a thing? Here's an etiquette suggestion: Abandon your phony names, do your own thinking and don't expect everybody to share your obsessions.

[Yes, that is the actual response that Doogan sent to his constituents.]

The background, from the blogger herself, is
here.

It is a shame that a lawmaker would stoop that low to expose a blogger's identity and invade her privacy as writer. Was Doogan upset because the blogger called him out on his rude email to his constituents? I went to her blog and she writes some good stuff. I hope that she comes back to continue her writing and not allow the lawmaker to use his bulliness to destroy her talent as writer. It is too bad as she said that by exposing her, the lawmaker exposed himself.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love her Mudflats blog. Doogan sounds nuts and I hope AKM carries on with her writing regardless of what he says. I think she did a fair job. She's good with the snark when needed too.

PrissyPatriot said...

I am always surprised those who write for the WSJ and a few other fake papers would sign their real names. LOL

As for me, Prissy is the satire and the Patriot is for real;)