Does The Blogosphere Need A Speech Code?
Ed Morrissey

The New York Times reports on an effort that has percolated in the blogosphere over the last couple of weeks to clean up the on-line debate. Spurred by threats made against a female blogger over the propriety of deleting abusive comments, the new standards would more or less compel bloggers to eliminate offending comments and to discourage anonymous comments:

Chief among the recommendations is that bloggers consider banning anonymous comments left by visitors to their pages and be able to delete threatening or libelous comments without facing cries of censorship. ...

This is one of those well-intentioned but doomed reform efforts that sound reasonable but will have no chance of changing anything. Before the reform leaves the dock, it has already split into several "standards", which will cause confusion on which logo means what rules and under which circumstances. Bloggers and commenters will have to look for logos, and then will endlessly argue over each individual post or comment as to whether it meets the guidelines. ...

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Genteel Blogs Offer 'Civility Offsets' to Vitriolic Bloggers
by Scott Ott

(2007-04-09) — A draft proposal circulating in the so-called blogosphere would allow family-friendly blogs to sell “civility offsets” to vitriolic bloggers who prefer to pay for “nastiness indulgences” rather than to tame their bitter tirades. ...

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Video: Mary Katharine Ham defends Michelle on CNN
Allahpundit

Karol and I and another guest had a mini-birthday party for her on Thursday night in NYC when she told us she was due to be on CNN the next day to tape a segment about harassment of female bloggers. She swore she was going to give ‘em what-for about ignoring all the garbage MM has had to put up with throughout the years.

And so she did, my friends. So she did. ..

MKH and Huff on CNN's 'Reliable Sources' 
Posted by: Mary Katharine Ham.

Well, I was just YouTube-ing this segment when I noticed Allah had it up already.

I was on "Reliable Sources" this weekend with Joan Walsh of Salon and Arianna Huffington talking about misogyny on the Internet. Both of them resented my pointing out the lefty blogosphere's tendency toward vile chauvinism and lefty women's tendency to excuse it when directed at conservative women.

The truth is that misogyny is not confined to the Left or the Right. I was not suggesting that. What I am suggesting is that I'm not keen on singing Kumbayah with women who think my politics somehow make me an inauthentic woman. Just because a politically neutral figure whom they feel comfortable defending allows them to finally "stand up" for all women doesn't mean I have to smile and play solidarity sister with them just because they're suddenly in the mood.

The Left has been more than happy to let Michelle Malkin endure the c-word and call Condi Rice "Brown Sugar" for years with very little concern. They have spent those same years calling people like Michelle and Condi self-loathers and the whole of the Republican party woman-haters. "How can you stand to belong to the party of women's oppression, you self-loathing, Rethuglican woman-hating c**ts," asks the Left without a hint of irony. So, no, I don't feel like aligning with traditional feminists in this fight would necessarily serve me well. ...

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Not a Fair Fight
Lorie Byrd

I rarely ever catch Reliable Sources, but happened to see a few minutes of it yesterday. I stopped and watched because I saw Mary Katharine Ham in the little Brady Bunch box, along with Arianna Huffington, Howard Kurtz and Joan Walsh. I called my girls into the room to see Mary Katharine, but Arianna was talking at the time. My ten-year-old's first comment was "Where is she from?" I told her that was good question and I was not referring to her country of origin.

Mary Katharine was pitted against three liberals, including Howard Kurtz, but held her own. Next time they might need to bring in a couple more liberals to go up against Mary Katharine because three was not enough. When Arianna tried to say there is no difference between the left and right when it comes to crazies hurling invective on the internet, Mary Katharine did not let it stand. Newsbusters has a partial transcript. ...