Famed Anonymous Anti-Palin Blogger 'Outed' by Lawmaker

[BlueJessamine]

Famed Anonymous Anti-Palin Blogger 'Outed' by Lawmaker

by Dawn Teo

An Alaskan state legislator revealed in his constituent e-newsletter Friday the identity of an anonymous local blogger who was made famous by her criticisms of Sarah Palin during the 2008 presidential campaign season.

Mudflats blogger "Alaska Muckraker" (AKM) rose to blogger fame almost instantaneously when Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin was tapped to be John McCain's running mate, and the then anonymous blogger wrote "What is McCain Thinking? One Alaskan's Perspective" under the penname AKM. Little was known about Palin in the lower 48, and AKM provided a much-needed window throughout the campaign season into Palin's performance as governor of Alaska from a progressive viewpoint.

AKM earned the ire of Alaska Representative Mike Doogan (LD-25) of Anchorage (who happens to be a writer by trade) when AKM wrote a blog post about a rude email that Doogan sent to his constituents. He had saved up all of the emails from constituents on the Troopergate issue, and in December he responded to all of them at once, CC'ing a list of about thirty perfect strangers together in one email, telling them,

Are you people nuts? You send me -- and everybody else in the legislature, from the looks of things -- Spam and then lecture me on email etiquette -- as if there were such a thing? Here's an etiquette suggestion: Abandon your phony names, do your own thinking and don't expect everybody to share your obsessions.



AKM posted Doogan's own words on the Mudflats blog along with an enumerated list of the basic rules of netiquette.

In the same email, just above the entry broadcasting AKM's identity, Doogan (who was a print columnist for 14 years and currently writes mystery novels) inveighed against the Alaska Press Club giving an award to the author of a widely read email and then fulminated against newspapers cutting the jobs of real newsmen. Then, with one short paragraph, Doogan brought AKM and her family into the public eye,



Anonymous Blogger Anonymous No More

Dawn's article continues at the Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dawn-teo/famed-anonymous-anti-pali_b_180313.html

snip:

Others have described Doogan as "obsessed" with AKM's identity and "rabid" about the issue of anonymous political discourse. Another Mudflats blogger points out,

This may be the first known case of an anonymous blogger being cyber-stalked by a politician...

From TPMCafe

Blogger's identity outed by AK politician

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/therap/2009/03/bloggers-identity-outed-by-ak.php?ref=reccafe:

After a 4-month effort to hunt down a blogger's identity, this Alaska state representative, without any provocation, except his view that no one should be allowed to speak out anonymously, published the blogger's name - using an official political e-newsletter, mailed out to many, many recipients.

[annabanana]

1. Mike Doogan is suddenly a lot more "public" than he used to be.

If you know what I mean.