Wed
Jun 6 2007
01:42 pm
Brittney hangs up her keyboard
By: R. Neal

Brittney at Nashville is Talking has resigned. I haven't been following the latest controversy, but it appears she got hammered pretty hard for something she linked to and it pushed her over the edge.

This is a real shame. Her NiT blog is a huge force in the Tennessee blogosphere, and the NiT aggregator helped promote a lot of Nashville and state blogs including this one. She has done a fabulous job for WKRN and for Tennessee bloggers.

One of the best and worst things about the interwebs is the "wild west" atmosphere. It makes for a wide latitude in expressing viewpoints, but too many idiots have to abuse it and ruin it for everybody.

Everyone, me included, ought to remember from time to time that there are actual people on the other end of all the online hate and vitriol. I wish people could just tone it down a little and say what they mean in a forceful yet mature way without all the venom and crude attacks. It would be a lot more effective, and might even get someone who otherwise wouldn't to pay more attention to what we're saying instead of how we say it.

Topics:
Joe P.'s picture

No foul

Submitted by Joe P. on Wed, 2007/06/06 - 2:17pm.

was made, except perhaps by WKRN which has not rallied around her. NiT has been an impressive effort on all counts.

R. Neal's picture

It's a technical foul, not a

Submitted by R. Neal on Wed, 2007/06/06 - 2:18pm.

It's a technical foul, not a flagrant one.

Yeah, I sort of thought so, too. Regular readers would get her point, but drive-bys and drop-ins probably wouldn't. Most of the idiots attacking her probably know better, but there you go.

Ennui's picture

Eh...I would hate to be

Submitted by Ennui on Wed, 2007/06/06 - 2:25pm.

Eh...I would hate to be taken to task everytime I have linked or posted something unwise or the like(as defined by the internets intelligentsia). Sure, it looks like she is climbing up on the cross just a tad, but I liked her blog. Good, and for the most part civil, discourse.

Andy Axel's picture

Yeah, I sort of thought so,

Submitted by Andy Axel on Wed, 2007/06/06 - 2:47pm.

Yeah, I sort of thought so, too. Regular readers would get her point, but drive-bys and drop-ins probably wouldn't. Most of the idiots attacking her probably know better, but there you go.

It's this sort of thing that regularly infuriates me more about the leftish side of the blogosphere rather than the right, especially the self-appointed and righteous "dumbass Southerner" finger-pointers who'd rather blame the victims of this society, rather than doing a ***damned thing to effect any real change.

A bunch of virtual passersby have created enough noise to make her working life difficult for her, and on the basis of "not much."

The Jesus General brigade has the scalp now of someone with not much power, and a middling amount of influence. What tremendous heterosexual machismo on display. Yeah, do absolutely nothing to harm people with real power and influence, and completely eviscerate those without. There's a winning strategy for you.

Thanks for wielding that leverage against someone who didn't deserve it, Patriot Boy. You only damaged a fairly small blogging community in the process. What a triumph against the forces of racism. Ooh. Owie. What a score for truth in media. You've really balanced the scales for the blogging community in Tennessee now. Here's a virtual moon pie for your big victory.

(By the way, did any of you bashing Brittney ever actually read Gilliard? He had much thicker metaphorical skin in his public life than the lot of y'all have. The only reason you went after Brittney because she was on a payroll -- she wasn't some winger like Smantix giving it away for free. Congrats. You got your effin' scalp, and it's probably worth all of $40K in salary for some third rate ABC affiliate in a state bordering the deep backwaters of this country. Be proud. Be so very proud. How's that campaign to browbeat the Cheney administration into submission working out for ya?)

____________________________

I'm a guy in a Reagan mask -- and I'm running for President!

stiffy08's picture

What about Brittney's opinion?

Submitted by stiffy08 on Thu, 2007/06/07 - 2:33pm.

Hi everyone:

In all the fervor, I think many of us may have missed the point of Brittney's resignation. This gong-show hasn't happened in isolation. As per Brittney's resignation letter:

-------------
I’ve been thinking about this decision for a long, long time, so don’t go thinking that anyone in particular won here. Nobody specifically pushed me out. This decision is the culmination of lots of long hours of pondering, checking myself, and wondering if I’ve got what it takes. I decided I don’t.
-------------

So why don't we all leave well enough alone and let her get on with her life? Same goes for Patriotboy. They both made mistakes, they both admit it, and they both apologize. Brittney makes it clear that she wasn't too happy in her job anyway. So Andy Axel and all the rest of you, if you're unhappy with her decision, take it up with her, rather than her those who critiqued her to keep her accountable.

R. Neal's picture

Hi, "stiffy" We heard you

Submitted by R. Neal on Thu, 2007/06/07 - 2:52pm.

Hi, "stiffy"

We heard you the first time.

stiffy08's picture

Oops!

Submitted by stiffy08 on Thu, 2007/06/07 - 2:55pm.

Duh. Let me know if you need to hear it again ;)

Eleanor A's picture

Yeah. I had my differences

Submitted by Eleanor A on Wed, 2007/06/06 - 6:14pm.

Yeah. I had my differences with Brittney way back when and wasn't a regular reader of her blog, but I've heard good buzz about her and no way should she have quit over this. I hope she'll reconsider. Seriously. There's just no 'there' there with some of the remarks people are making about her in comments.

[Edit] On the other hand, now that I've read more of her post, I guess I can understand where she's coming from. It would be difficult to serve as the paid blogger for one of the Big Three media outlets, especially one that harbors the likes of Steve Gill.

I'm sure she'll wind up blogging somewhere else, maybe someplace where she won't have to answer for as much corporate BS as the current gig.

Who here wants to bet Brit's replacement with be another right-leaning white man? I know I'd lay some serious odds.

egalia's picture

This is so depressing

Submitted by egalia on Wed, 2007/06/06 - 6:51pm.

Wading through the comments over at NiT and Tiny Cat Pants is some kind of hell. And so much for the wishful hope that all the hatemongers are on the right. Brittney has taken so much crap, I think there's some kind of awful lesson in the fact that the final straw came from the left.

Andy Axel's picture

I think there's some kind of

Submitted by Andy Axel on Wed, 2007/06/06 - 7:27pm.

I think there's some kind of awful lesson in the fact that the final straw came from the left.

You follow Tennessee politics, right?

This is the daily friggin' battle.

We elect a Democrat into the governor's office who trashes workers' comp, throws people off their health insurance, his support for Senate candidates nets the loss of the Senate majority, he chides supporters of the Kerry candidacy in 2004, and we help to re-elect him anyway because JIM! Bryson is such a nutsack.

We throw our support behind Harold Ford Jr. even though he quickly proceeds to sell out progressive causes throughout his campaign, and watch helplessly as he jumps into a cozy seat in the GOP-lite DLC chair.

We're forced to endure multiple indignities on progressive issues like gay marriage because stupid Democrats walk right into these traps set for us by Republicans, and because, well, we suck at framing issues and try to lead by following.

We get the John Fords and Ward Crutchfields and Dave Cooleys and Doug Henrys and Jerry Coopers and Jimmy Naifehs working on our account. Big whoop.

It's the daily death by a thousand cuts, and the guy almost always wielding the knife for the coup de grace in this godforsaken place always seems to have a donkey on his lapel. (And I do mean "his.") And then we get to play laughingstock to the smug, self-righteous "fuck the South" types. Not saying that Tennessee doesn't earn it at times, but Brittney Gilbert sure as hell didn't. These people conveniently forget: If Al Gore had spent five minutes here, he'd probably be president today.

This isn't any kind of news to anyone, I'm certain.

Now we have to sweat national bloggers enforcing their own vision of partisan piety, and doing so at the expense of people with the least influence and zero actual power.

Et tu, PatriotBoy?

____________________________

I'm a guy in a Reagan mask -- and I'm running for President!

Andy Axel's picture

Sorry for beating this dead horse, but...

Submitted by Andy Axel on Thu, 2007/06/07 - 10:56pm.

Wow, I got a snarky pullquote, but the crapflood didn't quite follow.

Someone named Axel knows what motivates Jesus' General readers

Why, Mistuh Christian. Don't stand on ceremony, now. I've seen what you look like when you drop the ironic pose, wilting like a loosed magnolia petal when some third-tier bloggrrl from Tennessee's mighty "backwater" says some things that make your onion-thin skin pucker and shrivel. (Way to extort an apology from her, too. Is that R. Lee Ermey jag an act, or not?)

Feel free to call me Andy. You'll understand if I don't call you "sir."

And yeah, I know what motivates JG readers. I was one, up until this week, anyway.

____________________________

I'm a guy in a Reagan mask -- and I'm running for President!

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