16 June 2009

Jack Knife

While I will wholeheartedly admit to being ignorant of the news, Twitter keeps me up to date with enough to get by.

Today I heard for the first time about the NightJack case. I found out via Reynolds' twitter feed (which I download via the wonderful Ubertwitter) and did a little more reading this evening when I had chance.

Frankly I'm worried. Where does a newspaper get off in deciding to breach a blogger's anonymity? And why is blogging any different to writing under a pen-name or pseudonym? Michael Crichton, the sadly deceased creator of ER used to write under the pen name of John Lange. It's a common practice in writing. I just don't understand how a newspaper I used to enjoy reading thinks that it's acceptable to breach something so sacred?

It does also have implications for health field based bloggers in the UK, as there is every chance we could be outed also.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Actually, an author's real identity is usually well known. Everyone knows that Nora Roberts is JD Robb, for example. Pen names in publishing are purely for marketing and branding purposes.

I totally agree about Nightjack needing anonymity, but just a drive-by comment. :)