Sierra and Locke: Calming the waters
by Virginia DeBolt

Kathy Sierra and Chris Locke are appearing together today in an interview on CNN. They issued a Joint Statement in anticipation. They will be on the CNN American Morning show, but you may be able to catch the interview during other parts of the day.

Locke was one of several names mentioned by Sierra in her original blog post about the threats made against her. As we've seen, people whose names were in that original post have been the objects of the firestorm in the blogosphere, as has Sierra herself.

Sierra said,

The firestorm around my post is both heartening and terrible. Chris told me himself that he believes I was right to speak out on this. However, my post led many people to the wrong conclusion about the specific levels of involvement by the people I named.

Locke said that he and Sierra talked on the phone for two hours about the incident, and ended up sharing some laughs,

It's true we laughed, but not at the core issues. No one was laughing about the offensive words and images that were posted to the blogs I was involved with. The material Kathy quoted on her site was hurtful and ugly. I do not excuse it or think it should be excused.

Both mentioned that the discussion about conduct, speech, and legality for bloggers is valuable but that they don't want to see legal limits placed on free speech as a result of this event.

My hope is now that they are talking together about the issue of online threats against women, the rhetoric surrounding the discussion will settle down. People can stop taking sides and move to a more rational examination of the issue and what actions should come out of it.

Submitted by Virginia DeBolt (view blog) on Mon, 04/02/2007 - 08:10

Comments

 

Thanks for linking to this

I found both of their statements to be very appropriate and thoughtful.
__

Flooded Lizard Kingdom
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Submitted by Skye on Mon, 04/02/2007 - 08:59
 

Video

The CNN interview can be seen here.

"How can you threaten the cute kitty", will go down as the worst line uttered by a professional broadcaster in the history of television.

Submitted by shelleyp on Mon, 04/02/2007 - 11:03
 

Thanks!

Oops. The link doesn't seem to work. Can you try again?

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Submitted by Virginia DeBolt on Mon, 04/02/2007 - 11:08
 

Never mind

I found what you referred to here: one good move. I don't see it yet on CNN or YouTube.

You're right, the cute kitty remark was utterly wrong.

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Submitted by Virginia DeBolt on Mon, 04/02/2007 - 11:23
 

""How can you threaten the

""How can you threaten the cute kitty", will go down as the worst line uttered by a professional broadcaster in the history of television."

Hey Shelley, we agree!

Bert

Submitted by Bert Bates on Mon, 04/02/2007 - 12:19
 

It illustrates the problem

For a news anchorMAN to say something like that following a news story illustrates the problem, though, doesn't it?

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Submitted by Virginia DeBolt on Mon, 04/02/2007 - 13:04
 

Cyberbullying

This reminds me of the panel at SXSWi on under-18 activity on the Web -- chat, social media, etc. The speakers felt that while the creepier problem of stalking was a concern, cyberbullying was the number one problem for young net users. That surprised me.

Maybe it shouldn't have, given what an adult like Sierra has gone through. The dismissive anchorman is also exactly why we have this problem, and why bullying in schools has only lately become seen as something that must be stopped, not just ignored as "wussy whining."

Much of the problem is the anonymity of commenters, who write things that they would never dare if they thought that they could be found and prosecuted. When a few IP addresses hear a knock on their door and get handed a summons, that might help stop this sort of stuff.

Sheila Scarborough
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Submitted by Seafarer on Mon, 04/02/2007 - 15:32
 

Talking about the problem

will bring it out in the open help raise awareness and create change. I hope Kathy's particular situation is resolved soon so that she feels safe again, but I also hope that this has brought a serious problem closer to a tipping point toward civility.

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Submitted by Virginia DeBolt on Mon, 04/02/2007 - 16:35
 

Not the same

In a way, civility is incidental to much of this. Someone who is going to issue a threat of harm isn't going to be much concerned about civility. And two people being uncivil to each other, can do so without it becoming an attempt to intimidate.

Later on--much later on--I plan on writing my own interpretation of a 'self defense' guide for women online. The first rule to learn is avoiding any appearance of being a 'victim'. That's brings the rats out faster than anything else. Doesn't matter your sex: victims draw out the worst sort.

Submitted by shelleyp on Mon, 04/02/2007 - 17:54
 

That Anchorman

Is a total ignorant man. Sorry. To make such an off the cuff comment like that shows that he did not get at all the potential repercussions of issues such as this. I am married to a professional network engineer and trust me, no one, none of us, is truly anonymous. An IP address is your finger print and with the right tools and right person, if you commit an act like that you can be found. I hope that people act in a more responsible manner in the future.

Rebecca

Submitted by Makswife on Mon, 04/02/2007 - 18:52
 

Maybe I missed an important detail

then. Because I thought that the owners of the blogs involved were unable to figure out who actually made the threats. I was under the impression that Kathy Sierra still feels unsafe because nobody has been able to find the people who threatened her.

http://www.webteacher.ws/
http://first50.wordpress.com/

Submitted by Virginia DeBolt on Tue, 04/03/2007 - 15:35