The problem remains, though, that there are firms that exist to do this sort of thing. They exploit the secret sins of imperfect people. They are the Donald Segretti's and G. Gordon Liddy's of the world who read the Art of War and believe the ends justify the means. Often times their juvenile pranks go further than planned and the pranksters end up in prison, but more often something worse happens. They cause a lot of good people who would otherwise volunteer to serve their communities, their state or country to shirk away, for fear of embarrassing themselves or hurting their families. They're a big part of what's wrong with politics and public service.
Gee, would it be possible for Whitmire to be a more overwrought? I don't think so. He says someone "went to a fair amount of trouble" to "dig up dirt" on Archibald and exploit "secret sins." Actually, it isn't a fair amount of trouble to look up bankruptcy records; I've done it several times, and it's a breeze. All you have to do is look up a public record, the kind of thing real journalists are supposed to do on a regular basis. John Archibald's bankruptcy file is not "dirt" and it's not "secret." It only became an issue because of Archibald's colossal phoniness.
Whitmire compares a blogger/Internet commenter to Richard Nixon's henchmen? Good grief. And since when is it a "juvenile prank" to bring public records to light? Again, that's what journalists do.
Archibald and Whitmire seem to be blaming The Truth's revelations on Matrix LLC, a Montgomery-based public-relations/lobbying firm, and they are particularly alarmed that the inside scoop on Archibald is coming from anonymous sources.
My response: So what? Obviously, I believe in transparency because I write every word of this blog under my own name. But I've also experienced the downside of transparency; as regular readers know, I was cheated out of my job at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) because of my coverage on the Don Siegelman case and other matters. That's not a guess on my part; I've got audiotaped evidence that proves it:
Audio: UAB and the Cost of Blogging About the Siegelman Case
So I can understand why the author of The Birmingham Skews wishes to remain anonymous. Archibald and company probably want his name so they can go after his job--the way someone went after mine.
Archibald and his buddy, Whitmire, seem to be engaging in an effort to "flip" the story--a common tactic when conservatives get caught with their pants down. literally or figuratively. Notice how Archibald/Whitmire try to twist the story so it is not about the revelation of a public record--and Archibald's effort cover it up. Instead, they want the story to be about the writer's anonymity--as if there is something wrong with that.
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