razoronline

Aaron Ochs · @razoronline

18th Nov 2010 from Twitlonger

Since 2005, Ann Calhoun has provided a wealth of analysis of the controversial Los Osos wastewater project, mixed with some poems, progressive-libertarian commentary and occasional promotions of local events. Most people give Calhoun credit for creating the first blog to cover the Los Osos wastewater project around the clock, followed by Ron Crawford's Sewerwatch, which heavily focuses on the adventures and misadventures of Pandora Nash-Karner and friends. Now, support for the once-popular local, online social hub has waned as the conversation -- that Calhoun supervises -- diminished into personal attacks, threats of intimidation, stalking and harassment against the very same people that have supported her throughout the years.

Calhoun calls them "ankle-chewers": anonymous and non-anonymous rabble-rousers who argue with each other relentlessly over the wastewater project. Several commenters on her blog associate themselves with the political ideologies expressed by founders of the non-profit group, Taxpayers Watch, which recently reached a settlement agreement with the Los Osos Community Services District, their insurer and the State Water Board. Though they don't have their own web site, hawkish Taxpayers Watch supporters have dominated the conversation of her site with a wide assortment of disagreements. On the surface, that's not much of a problem. What's the big deal? The problem is that reasonable discourse on Calhoun's Cannon has transitioned into unadulterated vitriol and defamation of community residents from relentless, obsessive attacks on family members to people wishing suffering -- and, yes, even death -- of people who speak out against the County for their handling of the wastewater project.

For five years, the Internet has gleefully provided a small sampling of discourse happening in Los Osos, though many of the participants in the discourse are anonymous and generally have a fixed disposition of anger. There have been no local polls that weigh the opinions of the community, so it can be very misleading to click on Calhoun's site, look at the comments and construe what you see as the pulse of the community. By leaving the derogatory comments unchecked, without moderation or any sort of pause, people get the wrong idea about Los Osos and the people that live there. Reasonable people, who are intimately involved in local politics, will look at the comments and dismiss them as hearsay -- or as MSNBC's Ed Schultz would call it -- "psycho talk." People outside the know, however, will find that the comments found on Calhoun's Cannon add merit to county-wide cynicism about the sewer. "These people are crazy, and they've been crazy for 30 years. Just build the damn sewer and get it over with, and maybe then they will shut up."

Instead of fact-finding, fact-checking or clarifying the misconceptions, Calhoun has allowed the incendiary remarks to stand. Why? "You choose what to write in this space," Calhoun wrote one commenter recently. "You and you alone choose what you write here." On the other hand, she writes, "If your failure to control yourself in this space gets too stupid," she deletes the comments. Translation: "You have the choice to write what you write, and that's your problem, but I have the right and the choice to remove those comments if they are problematic to me." Then I suppose comments mentioning amusement knowing that some of the "obstructionists" would suffer, die or "pack it in" is not "stupid" and I suppose that gratuitous, malicious attacks of family isn't "stupid" either -- but if you dare criticize "Mommy" Calhoun, she will take action.

I can't tell anyone how they should run their web site or blog, but I can most certainly see the plethora of logical fallacies and negligence from webmasters who established a long-standing reputation of maintaining a conversation about a controversial subject. Calhoun's defense of her inability to moderate her blog and create a terms of use is without merit, and it's condescending to users who are looking for fairness, objectivity and civility. If Calhoun wants to reestablish her personal dignity, she should address the defamatory comments -- by any means, really -- and apologize to our friends in the community of Los Osos for leaving them to be digitally lynched.

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