Too Busy For Words - the PaulWay Blog

Having read Murray Cumming's slating of Jeff Waugh and Jeff's reply, I feel little actual attachment to the debate over the GNOME elections, whatever they are. And Jeff and I have had several, well, fights over various issues, mainly on IRC. So I can't say that I'm Jeff's best buddy or that I owe him anything.

But to me this is a classic example of Poisoning the well. Ordinarily I would say "oh well, keep on going", as everyone will have to anyway. But Murray's invective has gone way beyond mere reporting of facts and has headed straight into the mire of overblown, hyperbolic personal opinion. He doesn't give any actual examples of the behaviour he deplores, he grossly mischaracterises any disorders Jeff may suffer from, and his attack has all the hallmarks of something designed not to inform but to slander. Jeff says that Murray is entitled to his opinions, and even invokes Voltaire to say that they can be aired publically. But, to my mind, Murray is only entitled to state fact, something that, while hinted at, seems to be somewhat absent from his diatribe. I'd take that one step further and say that even the facts should be presented in an orderly way in a proper forum - posting up email conversations or IRC logs is not only airing one's dirty laundry in public but a misuse of what might have been private correspondence.

As John Howard found out in this recent election, with the Liberal party's many attempts at mud-slinging, such as criticising Kevin Rudd's wife Therese Rein's business dealings and the botched attempt to link the Labor party with radical Islamists and the Bali bombings, sometimes mud splatters back. Jeff's no saint, and I think he acknowledges that. But Murray's attempt at painting him as Bill Gates incarnate now seems more fanatic and irrational than Jeff might have ever been. Interestingly, Murray is not running for a post in this year's elections, but that to me doesn't clear him of much.

If this were in a newspaper Jeff could easily sue for libel. In the blogosphere, with the parties being in different countries and with an object that is both intangible and unpaid, we just have to settle it the old-fashioned way - by everyone just moving on. Murray's comments will stand in the record and he, as well as Jeff, will be judged by them.