WKRN blogger quits, cites antagonism from community
Steve Safran June 6th, 2007
(Bias: I’m a huge fan of Brittney Gilbert.) As near as we can tell, Brittney Gilbert was the first local blogger hired by a television station to do what she does best - blog. Brittney took the sensibility she established in Nashville at her blog, Sparkwood & 21, and brought it to WKRN’s Nashville is Talking. But the anonymous haters simply became too much, and Brittney has resigned:
I do not want to be seen as a victim here, I only want to honestly tell you why I will no longer be authoring NIT. Your host is simply not cut from strong enough cloth. This is the internet. People are vicious. They are even more vicious when they fail to make any distinction between you and a feelingless, faceless media company. It’s easier to justify the venom that way. And while some people may get off on feeding those frenzies of hate, I do not. I tried to not let it affect me but it does. Every day. The tears and the stress are just not worth it.
Now, I realize the commenters here will inevitably write something like “Boo hoo, if you can’t take the heat, get out of the blogosphere.” All I ask is that you read Brittney’s entry, where she highlights just some of the things the anonymous trolls have written about her in the last 24 hours alone, and see if you don’t at least sympathize with her. (UPDATE: Then read the hateful comments that continue to pile on. Amazing.) Some times you can’t win. It can get to be too much. There are people who will assail mainstream media, even if a local news outlet tries to reach out in an earnest effort at transparency. The web brings out the best and the worst in people. Brittney was brave to be the first at trying to help a TV station reach out to the community. It’s sad her hard work was shouted down so loudly by a small-but-vocal bunch of jerks.
20 Comments Add your own
1. Drew | June 6th, 2007 at 11:48 am
I’ve been there. Not blogging for a TV station but blogging in a fairly controversial medium. And realized I felt the exact same way Brittney does. That I wasn’t cut out for putting up with that small-but-vocal group of jerks. That I didn’t need the stress or the pain. It hurt like mad to give it up, but it was the right call. So to Brittney Gilbert, I say congratulations on moving forward and not letting people push you down.
2. Amanda E. | June 6th, 2007 at 12:27 pm
Sadly, its not unusual for highly visible female bloggers to be attacked by anonymous trolls and chased off the internet.
Google for AutoAdmit, Kathy Sierra, Kathleen Cooper for just a few topics.
3. Peter Ralph | June 6th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
Kathy Sierra said she felt her life was in danger. But hateful comments? - it takes you a lot longer to write one than it takes me to hit the delete key.
4. David Johnson | June 6th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
from these comments, obviously, some people were not hugged enough as children.
5. Cory | June 6th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
This is so sad for so many reasons.
She says she was treated like the mainstream media — that she’s held to a higher standard, that she can’t express an opinion without people demanding for her resignation — despite the fact she was a blogger before she was a mainstream media employee. Would a blogger on the “outside” experience this? Very doubtful.
I would imagine there are other factors here, too. The GM is gone. The ND is gone. Both were part of her support structure.
This was a tremendous experiment in citizen journalism that has ended poorly, but I think it doesn’t diminish its value, its accomplishments or its potential. And somebody should hire Brittney in a hurry.
6. brittney | June 6th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
I was discouraged from deleting or altering comments in any way.
7. brittney | June 6th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
Yes, hire me!
8. Scott | June 6th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
As ‘hateful comments” on the internet go, I thought the ones shown in the blog entry were relatively tame.
Still, if she’s saying she was required to leave posts which were primarily personal insults and those containing profanity, then there’s a problem with the system under which she worked.
9. Rob | June 6th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Wow. That blows. All the higher-ups came back from NAB and all they raved to me about was WKRN.com and Brittney’s blog and how cool it was. But if she was forced to leave those posts “as is” … I can see how she got burned.
There’s a frustrating parallel between what happened to her and the uninformed masses who turned on Terry Heaton over the last 72 hours of CameraGate. They don’t know - and don’t care - what the person on the other side of the computer’s motivations or intentions really are but feel justified to make some pretty outrageous claims without knowing all the facts of the matter or taking time to rationally discuss their concerns.
Why is it that more people use their keyboards to complain, gripe, threaten to boycott channels and advertisers and make vulgar suggestions that are anatomically impossible than the people who actually think before they post?
10. Dave Zatz | June 6th, 2007 at 2:40 pm
It raises the question (again): Should all blogs allow comments? And the followup… Is a blog without comments (or trackbacks) really a blog? It also reinforces the idea of someone other than the author should moderate comments.
11. curt | June 6th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
Rob - simple answer. Most people suck.
12. zimzo | June 6th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
I guess you were afraid to give any context to what happened because you knew it would make Brittney look bad. Here is what happened: Of all the hundreds of tributes to Steve Gilliard that appeared on the Internet after he died this week, she chose a vile, hateful and racist post to quote extensively and link to. When a number of people objected to this disgusting attack on someone who had just died and whose family was grieving, Brittney did not apologize or disassociate herself in any way. Then she wrote a snarky post making herself out to be some sort of victim, again without apologizing to this man’s family and friends. If it was your son or brother or friend who had been attacked like this I am sure you would be outraged as well. A simple apology or a statement that she did not agree with the sentiments in the post she linked to would have ended the controversy immediately. Instead, she quit and tried to portray herself as a victim, a martyr. The only honest thing she says in this post is that she contributed to hatred in the blogosphere and for her to cry about a situation that she is completely responsible for creating and could have stopped at any time is ridiculous. For you to then slander Steve’s friends and admirers as a “bunch of jerks” when their outrage was completely justifiable makes you almost as bad as she is.
13. Michael Rosenblum | June 6th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
Ah Jeez….
OK. Reading the ‘hateful comments’… to me, in all honesty, they look like love notes. You should see what I get.
That she generated high feelings is a positive. That people felt strongly enough to take her on, to insult her, is to my mind a mark of achievement. I think it is tragic that she is walking away from this now. Free presses are messy, the cutting edge can cut both ways and lots of other trite phrases later, the web should engender high passion. Just edit the crap out of it and screw em if they don’t like it. Let em start their own website.
14. Eric | June 6th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
Zimzo, you copy and paste that everywhere huh?
15. Steve Safran | June 6th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
Zimzo:
It’s hard to slander an anonymous flamer, since slander involves the reckless harming of a person’s good name. Slander also requires saying the statement, so accuse me of libel instead, which is the print version.
So in Brittney Flamers v Safran (2007), I’m going to go with the “Fair Comment” defense, which means a reasonable person would have found/said/written the same thing I did.
I stand by my characterization of people who call Brittney “fucking stupid,” “fucking retarded,” a “Nazi” or “KKK” member, or who write “Fuck a whole bunch of Brittney” as “a bunch of jerks.”
Because the burden of proof in a libel case is on the defendant, they are going to have a hell of a time convincing the jury a reasonable person would not conclude they were reading statements from a bunch of jerks.
16. tdc | June 6th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
did you take a night class?
17. Steve Safran | June 6th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
I majored in wiseass.
18. Chris Weaver | June 6th, 2007 at 9:45 pm
It’s too bad that Brittney, of her own admission, couldn’t thicken up her skin to be able to let the bad stuff just roll off.
The good news is she has the talent to jump into a situation somewhere else that will probably give her a bit more of a shield from the public scrutiny.
19. Allen | June 7th, 2007 at 3:35 am
This is from her site, posted May 24th.
“I miss flying under the radar. It was therapeutic for me to write about my life, my troubles, my mishaps here. I don’t feel like I can do that anymore. I mean, in reality, I shouldn’t be writing this.
Obviously, I’m burned out. Oh, and I feel like a total asshole complaining about the blog job, just so you know”
Looks to me like the job of blogging was too much for her.
20. Nikolaos | November 26th, 2007 at 10:33 pm
Cool!
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