The Anchoress

John Edwards is not firing his campaign blogmistresses. He’s “personally offended” by their writing, but he’s going to keep them on, probably because he’s terrified of the netroot left. The bloggers have issued the requisite, “our profanity, sneers, mockery and disrespect was never meant to insult the crap out of you, wink, wink” dubious apology, and the matter is ended.

Well, for whatever reason Edwards has kept them on, I say good. I was never in favor of firing them. Alrighty, then.

Rick Moran wonders how the blogosphere can develop some sense of respectability. I shared my ideas in his comments section.

Maybe this will be a start. These blogmistresses are going to either become better writers or they’re going to buckle under the constraints of a campaign, crash and burn. Let ‘em write. I think we in the ’sphere need to let things play out a bit more, instead of quickly taking positions and spotting targets, if we want to gain some credibility outside of our own little world.

I can’t help but wonder, though - come on, you know I have to say it - how this all would have played out had a conservative blogger written something as incendiary as some of the writing chronicled here, here, here and here. What would have happened had a conservative blogger written something comparatively as ugly and then gone to work on a GOP Campaign? Would the lefties decrying the “scalp hunt” (and I decry it, myself) be protective of that conservative blogger (as I and other conservative bloggers have been of these two), arguing against firing, or would they simply go for the jugular? Would CNN have soft-pedaled the story or would they have used every inflammatory sentence, with subtitles and no bleeping out the endless (and pointless and infantile) profanity?

I think we all know the answer to those questions. But hopefully things will start to change. It is in all of the blogosphere’s best interest to create a little (a teeny-tiny) zone of tolerance, mutual respect and protectiveness if we’re all going to survive, flourish or (if it’s what you want) join the establishment.

It’s time to freaking grow up - everyone. We don’t have to be best pals. Reasonable adults who see each other as human beings capable of decency would suffice.

Pajamas Media has a round-up from Left and Right. After reading both sides…I’m not encouraged.

UPDATED: I’m getting some “but Anchoress, you’re a Catholic, how can you not support the firing of these brazenly bigoted women” emails. Easy.

1) These folks don’t limit their rage to the church, but even if they did, the church has seen worse and survived it and it will see even worse in the coming years and survive it, too. The church will still be here when these bloggers and you and I are long gone. The non-story here is that Anti-Catholic stupidity is not new. And it’s not shocking, either. It’s just small.

2) God can handle it. He’s got big shoulders. Sooner or later, one way or another, these bloggers and those who agree with them will have to deal with the absence of love - or maybe I mean more correctly their willingness to let love be absent - in their lives and their writing. Mother Theresa said something about how, when we face God, God will not see our sinfulness, but only how much love we have brought into the game.

3) Their writing says much more about their creed than it does about mine. Making adolescent or profane jokes at the expense of the Blessed Mother simply displays a poverty of spirit that should move us to pity, not rage.

4) Dissing Mary (or the Holy Spirit) always backfires in the end. You know that as well as I do. It should be interesting to watch. They may never even understand what they’ve done, or how things have come about, down the road. That’s kind of delicious to consider. And I mean that in a generous way, but maybe only a like-minded Catholic will understand that - the rest will misunderstand and think I’m talking vengeance, when I’m talking mercy.

5) It’s still a free country. Whether it will be or not down the road, when Hillary and Pelosi and the rest have regulated blogs out of existance (oh, that chill wind of suppression that blows in George Bush’s America, where we all are writing what we damn well please), is another story. For now, these ladies are free to write whatever they choose. People are free to read it and agree, read it and disagree or simply ignore them. And also, let’s face it, all bloggers, including yours truly, go over the top, sometimes. I get an Irish head of steam built up, and you know what happens.

I wrote over at Moran’s place: We increasingly, in this country and in this medium, refuse to let a thing play out. Before a story is even broken and understood, everyone is opining and taking sides, everyone is blabbering, everyone is finding a target, and it’s not serving us as bloggers, or the nation, well.

So, let’s cool our jets. Let’s stop the scalp-hunting. It has to be a voluntary thing. The Greenwalds have to agree to it, too, or it doesn’t work.

It doesn’t need an “online integrity pledge.” People can simply CHOOSE to stop being obnoxious and adolescent and try to give the other guy a benefit of a doubt, a fair shake. Accurate, full (not truncated or “shorter”) quotes. A little less sneering, a little more actual exchanging ideas. It’s really that simple. Over the past few weeks I’ve called the blogosphere a “teeming cesspool” and I’ve considered leaving it to pay more attention to my paying work. If bloggers on both sides could try a little harder to respect each other, be a little slower to draw their weapons, it would be good for all of us.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I haven’t got the energy for all the freaking rage, rage, rage out there - either to read it or to respond to it. I don’t know how others manage to maintain it, live in it and wallow in it…but I can’t stand it.

The Political Pit Bull, noting that news accounts are not really giving viewers the flavor of these bloggers’ material quotes them. I’m no prude but even my eyeballs got a little singed by some of it. You are warned.

Blue Crab Boulevard has more. So does Rick Moran, in an update. Lorie Byrd notes that Hillary will get some fodder from this.

Related: New and Old Media Evolving Erratically

Also writing:
Sister Toldjah
Instapundit
Michelle Malkin
Ann Althouse
National Journal
John Ham
Mary Katharine Ham
James Joyner
Stephen Spruiell
Powerline
Dawn Eden
Hewitt
Don Surber
Iowa Voice
Random Yak
Small Town Veteran
Hot Air
Protein Wisdom (Particularly read-worthy)

Related: Edwards Fires Blogmaster and Other Stories of Suppression.