Can a blog take down Howie Carr?

Guess what Herald and Ernie Boch, you just gave the blogger free airtime and a wider audience!

Come on Down!

Hmm. Did BMG know it wasn't the real Ernie Boch? Did they even check? Does it matter? No, no, yes, is my guess. (BMG has a disclaimer on the top of its most-recent Boch entry warning readers.)

I think the people at BMG are a bunch of fools, the equivalent of a bunch of kids sitting around a campfire making farting noises and giggling. Their world revolves around themselves; the writers make comments and the rest of the people agree with the writers and everyone pats themselves on the back.

And, with this, they can sit back and say, "Oh, we have no responsibility over what people say - and anyone can be anonymous or pretend to be someone else on the Internet, it's up to the readers to be wary." Yep. That's what a 15-year old says to his Mom, "I didn't know!!!!" Abdication of responsibility.

Separate but related topic - Universal Hub usually works as an aggregator of news from other websites. People know what they're going to get when they come here - mostly, unopinionated information. The vast-majority of entries are by one person and, although we know nothing about adamg, we have gathered, over time, what we need to know about him in order to trust what he says.

But, UH also allows anyone to set up an account and post entries.

The downside of this is, now anyone can post and can say whatever he/she would like. This gives this website a different tone and style. Suddenly, readers have to make a judgment about the writer - is he/she a legitimate source of information?

Most-recently, a person with the "Anonymous" handle has written entries. Obviously, the name is a funny little joke in of itself - because the person is, of course, anonymous.

Anyone can be anyone on the Internet but in specific cases, I think it's better when we know more about a person who is giving us information / feeding us drivel (depending on one's point of view).

People don't know me but they've gathered an idea of what I'm like through comments on this blog, my old real estate blog, and elsewhere. It's not necessarily accurate (let's not bring up the homeless in Copley Square again ...) but it's a clear representation.

I guess all I'm saying is, I think people think of Universal Hub - Adam Gaffin as one entity. To suddenly thrust someone else in without any background information is a bit jarring and changes the flavor of the site.

If people are going to contribute to this site, I think they should have to give more information about who they are, etc.

Or, maybe I'm just saying that, to add other contributors who start pontificating on subjects makes this site less unique. The comments section of this site is where there can be controversy, I'm not used to having the writers be controversial.

I'm what Howie Carr would refer to as a "moonbat". I have very liberal beliefs. I love his radio show.

So when that post popped up on my Facebook from Blue Mass Group, what did I do? I unsubscribed from their updates. Let Howie Carr be.

We'll see.

I think the boycott lost some steam when ErnieBochIII turned out not to be who you would assume he was from the name - the person posts under this misleading pseudonym - but there are a lot of people in greater Boston who have been unfairly characterized by Howie on live radio.

Today's story in the Herald has brought a ton of attention to the boycott. I think it will cost the station some advertising revenue and if the boycott sustains, it will cost Howie some money on his next contract but I don't know if the boycott has enough momentum to render Howie worthless or close to it.

Associating the judge with catholic church pedophilia was over the top. If it happened to me, I'd use my resources to organize the boycott and apply the financial pressure of the station.