I'm afraid that outing - which used to be far less common and widely excoriated - is going to be standard fare from now on. In the process, blog whistleblowers (and other providers of good information and commentary) are going to be more circumspect AND fewer in number. Like you, I don't really care all that much if anybody knows who I am - with one or two clicks, my real name has been available to anyone for the entire six years I've been blogging. But outing of many who thrive under pseudonymity means the death of their public service.

Well said, Hilzoy. I'm not terribly anonymous on my blog (which I haven't updated since Thanksgiving, unfortunately), but that's by choice. I link to it from the website hubby and I created years ago to keep friends and family informed about what's going on in our lives. I do try to maintain some privacy, like our location (general Seattle metro area, which is quite large).

This is a very disturbing story. Its pretty clear from reading the local coverage--including a published set of email letters between a non anonmyous citizen and the representative about local political affairs--that the representative (who, unfortunately, is a democrat) is extremely hostile to all kinds of citizen activity and interest in politics. The exchange of emails which unfortunately I can't find but which were published on that citizens blog reveal a politician who is extremely frightened of the kind of low level citizen engagement the rest of us find normal, like, for example, writing to someone who is *not* your district's representative in order to ask them to work on ethics reform, or to applaud their work. As soon as Rep. Doogan decided that the letter writer wasn't one of his constituents but was a blogger he went on the attack. AK muckraker was clearly in his sites as well as a citizen activist. In fact he asserted that private or pseudonymous citizen activity was identical to KKK activity that takes place "behind hoods."

The whole interaction between Doogan and alaskan citizens in general and bloggers in particular is beyond creepy. Its actually horrifying--especially in such a small social setting. He was informed that AKmuckraker felt that her life and livlihood could be endangered if he published her name and he did so anyway out of pure spite.

He deserves to be forced from office over this.

aimai

Agreed, Hilzoy. Your reasons for remaining anonymous are yours -- as are mine -- and so are AKMuckraker.

Them istake you are making is in thinking that *had Mike Doogan known* that there are legitimate rereasons for a private citizen to want to remain private he would not have outed her. He was specifically warned that she preferred to remain pseudonymous and he specifically told the person warning him that he had no intention of respecting her wishes *in order to hurt her* and to shut her up. This was a very hostile act and it was meant to hurt. It was not inadvertant or the result of some strange principle gone awry. He was equally angry with the guy who sent him some friendly and supportive questions about ethics proceedings. He's just a hugely angry and bitter person as even hsi friend "Poe" acknowledged in his weak tea defence over at the mudflats blog.

aimai

A very large self-proclaimed progressive blog used its collective resources to drive up its site traffic and intrude upon my now former and totally ruined private life. I am a whistle blower, and I have existed under acted on threats of harm and death for a very long time. This cyber and real life stalking and intrusion into my life left me without the means to trust another person for any reason. I suffered and continue to suffer from the effects of it. The perpetrators walked away scot free. That blog continues to publish identifying information about me, and then, to add insult to injury, the A list bloggers were told of my identity and have refused to reference my policy work. They commit group rape and then become prosecutor, judge and jury.

I would be better off dead instead of enduring unbearable never ending waves of terror.

What I have learned is that there are absolutely no good guys, and that civil society, at least in the US, does not exist. Predators and prey is all that there is.

No one, and I mean no one, protects those very few of us who have blown the whistle, no one wants to even know what is done to us, and the means by which to sustain ourselves after every thing, tangible and intangible is stolen from us, is deliberately withheld. That includes shelter, food, career and those things you all take for granted: friends, family, social contact, being welcome anywhere at all.

I so feel for AKM because she is very much at real risk for losing everything in her life. All of the so-called societal and legal systems are nothing but illusions.

None of you has the right to EVER demand whistle-blowing until you are housing, employing and protecting one or more of us.

Don't believe me, (defaming whistleblowers to discredit them has a quaint term - nuts and sluts)read the work of C Fred Alford.

tribperiwinkle,
I'm sorry for what has happened to you. Know, though, that you have the support of a lot of us!

As for this clown in Alaska, he needs to be reminded that many of our founding father's wrote under fake names to avoid being hung.
If you choose to be anonymous, that is YOUR choice. Not that of some elected asshole clown.

I hope that nothing good ever happens to this jackass, and a lot of bad does. If I can help take him down in any non-violent way, count me in!!!

If I may, Hilzoy, you're not helping matters much by spreading the link where the outing occurs. Respectfully, I suggest you edit that link out.

Back before the days of blogging under a pseudonym, one of the most common ways of expressing one's opinion was through the newspaper letters page. I did that a lot, and had to sign my name to what I wrote. It is dangerous. On one occasion I wrote against the inclusion of 'intelligent design' in public school science classes, and the local paper printed my letter shortly before the Thanksgiving holiday. At 6:00 in the morning on Thanksgiving I was awakened by a harassing phone call from a religious fanatic who had read my letter. For some time afterward I was hesitant to walk in front of the front picture window without the drapes pulled, and I always looked around before leaving the apartment.
Without my permission, a creationist website published an evolutionary-relate piece of scientific illustration and published my name, and I emailed the site to request that they include an accurate scientific description of what the illustration depicted. I didn't demand money, I didn't say they had to remove it or my name; I simply asked that it be accompanied by accurate information. They refused, and the last time I checked it was still up without the accurate information. Yet another creationist website posted my illustration and my name, and when I emailed them in an attempt to get the scientific information included, they accused me of trying to get them to pay for it and posted so on their website.
These kind of people have no sense of limits.

Mudflats website isn't loading anyhow. Coincidence?

This jerk claims "My own theory about the public process is you can say what you want, as long as you are willing to stand behind it using your real name."

King George III felt the same way about "Publius" who signed the Federalist Papers.

If this clown had been around to out those cowards Jay, Hamilton, and Madison, the history books might read differently.

Of course this clown would be working for the Tsar or Putin rather than Palin.

I wonder if he knows he's a Mad King Royalist?

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from mike doogan:

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My own theory about the public process is you can say what you want, as long as you are willing to stand behind it using your real name.
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Interesting thought.

Secret conversations between, say, politicians and businessmen are even more corrosive than anonymous public conversations since they can't be corrected or addressed by opponents.

Does Mike also believe that, in the public interest, all conversations having an impact on public policy should be made public? Using his logic, shouldn't politicians and businessmen be required to stand behind the content of these conversations in full public view?
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I suggest Mike Doogan be required to wear a wire at all times, lest his private attempts at influencing public policy go undocumented.

Obviously this particularly wrong cannot be righted but I'm a bit dismayed that no one is talking about the perfectly legal and legitimate steps we can at least take to make sure this representative does not win re-election and that we make sure he has no place in elected political office, in Alaska or otherwise. Where is the ActBlue donation link?

This is a side issue, but I don't get the "abusive ex-husband" argument. (I understand that AK Muckraker just used that as an example, and not to describe her situation.)

Unless the anonymous blogger is talking about her physical location, or reveals facts from which one can infer her physical location (beyond broad characterization such as what State she is in), outing that blogger's real name isn't going to help the husband find her.

I've just learned that Doogan outed, not just the name, but also the alleged location of AKMuckraker.

Maybe I should pull an Emily Litella on this one...

New facebook group is up to expose Mike Doogan for his shameful actions: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=82564017994#/group.php?gid=82564017994

Brian (@6:54 PM) This is a side issue, but I don't get the "abusive ex-husband" argument.

With all due respect, you obviously don't know how easy it is to find information on people these days. Google yourself and you'll be amazed at what might turn up. Create your own domain, and don't opt for the monthly privacy fee to mask you name and identity, and it's easy to find out who you are with a simple "whois" search. Trick someone into clicking on a link, and you can capture all kinds of information about them, including IP address, ISP, browser being used and more.

This is the Information Age, and it's getting harder and harder to remain anonymous.

Let our fellow "dimocrat," Mike Doogan, know what you think of his actions:

Rep.Mike.Doogan@legis.state.ak.us

It's very different when an anonymous site is used to defame people. Here in Los Angeles, the "mayorsam's sister city" web site published a scurrilous attack on a city council rep and when called on the carpet for it, became even more abusive to the point of being defensive about their curious case of journalistic non-ethics. The perpetrators eventually outed themselves because they were about to be exposed by the local press.

Oh, and Brian, you may want to ask the moderator of this blog just what kind of information they capture when you post a comment here. It's probably more than you would want them to know.

[There is a lot of information there, but I don't go prodding without reason. Remember also that I see a whole lot of stuff that you guys don't that is deeply disturbing and does get checked out. Thoroughly. --Mod]

Thanks for picking up on this. I wish you'd investigated further before running it -- not because you would have changed anything, but the more I find out about Doogan, the more fascinating this is.

He isn't some small-town clerk who ran for Representative and won. He probably is one of the best known Alaskans not related to -- or involved with -- the Palin family.

He was a newspaperman, a columnist of the Royko, Barry type -- apparently -- and a writer with quite a few books published -- collections of his columns and detective stories, mostly.

(Think about that -- a newspaperman revealing someone's anonymity, a detective story writer not realizing the potential danger he might have been putting AKM in.) Also, by the way, he has a (D) after his name.

As for the danger she might be in, she lives in Alaska. She lives in the domestic abuse capital of the nation. She lives in the state with the highest meth use in the country -- I believe -- and with a Governor who was the mayor of the "Meth Capital of Alaska." She lives in a state with a governor on record as having used state resources to conduct a personal vendetta. At least one Alaskan blogger took her blog down because of threats -- both personal and legal -- that she had received.

When the blog began, AKM wouldn't even reveal her gender, and even now people who join the forums are cautioned against using their personal names -- though some of us ignore that.

This is unconscionable, but one thing about Doogan. He likes making enemies. Even his collection of columns were advertised as coming from 'the Alaskan other Alaskans love to hate' -- so telling him how rotten he is is unlikely to make a dent. On the other hand, if any of you have bookstores, particularly specializzing in detective stories, and found some of his books and returned them to the publisher because of what he did -- not censorship, refusal to make profit from slime -- that might have an impact.

Oh, two more quick things. There are reports he had his own blog -- using a penname. And the reason Mudflats may be down is that they are getting so much traffic over this -- even compared to their usual -- that AKM has had to move the site to a larger-capacity location.

Someone needs to educate Doogan on two things:

1. The difference between "anonymous" and "pseudonymous." Mudflats was the latter, not the former, and there is a significant difference between the two.

2. The long and honored history of pseudonymous commentary in the United States, dating all the way back to the Founding Fathers, many of whom practiced this tradition, mostly for damn good reasons.

Just out of curiosity, did Mr. Doogan ever used an anonymous source in his previous profession?

You are correct, Michael W.

My comments we're ill-considered, or considered for only about 30 seconds, which amounts to the same thing.

here's a working link to mudflats: http://www.themudflats.net/

AKmuckraker isn't keeping this "outing" a secret. there are a bunch of blogs that have posted about it.

her desire for anonymity stemmed, in my understanding, from a desire to maintain friendly relations with her neighbors. she does live in alaska, after all, which is not a very democratic-friendly state.

even among democrats, apparently.

mike doogan is a tool who seems to have gotten the idea to do this from la palin who's been whining about "those anonymous bloggers" since last september.

it's unlikely AKmuckraker will stop blogging but her life -- and her family members' lives -- will be negatively affected by this. and it's going to be impossible for her to attend any more republican events, like the recent alaska republican party lincoln dinner.

nice of doogan to help the republicans out in that way, isn't it?

[There is a lot of information there, but I don't go prodding without reason. Remember also that I see a whole lot of stuff that you guys don't that is deeply disturbing and does get checked out. Thoroughly. --Mod]

Trust me, I know. I do have my own blog, and I am very grateful for the job you do. Just out of curiosity, what was up with that person posting in German? I don't speak or read it, unfortunately, but I assume it was just spam.

[Not everyone appreciates us. We get called 'fascists' a lot, and accused of censorship. As to the German spam, you assume correctly. We have since banned the IP. ]

I have to admit I would applaud a rightwing blogger being outed, but then again they're not the good guys. :-)

Nothing is private on the internet.

you can email rep. doogan's office here.

Did he stop to wonder whether she might have an abusive ex-husband, or a stalker?
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Kind of ironic rhetorical question, since Mike Doogan stalked AKMuckraker for four months.

Hilzoy, I am a loyal Mudflat reader, and AKM NEVER claimed to be anything other than a concerned citizen of Alaska. I started reading the blog when Sarah Palin was picked by McCain, and it quickly became my go-to guide for everything Alaskan. I didn't care who AKM was because it was the writing that was important. AKM writes with clarity, accuracy, humor, intelligence, and temerity. Affixing a name to the pseudonym does not change anything.

Mike Doogan has misused his position because of his petty personal vendetta against AKM. His intent is to silence bloggers, and I hope he feels the repercussions for his cowardice.

Thank you for writing an entry on this. It's good to see the story get coverage from well-written and well-read progressive blogs.

Doogan just started and lost a game of "whack-a-mole". He's possibly silenced ONE blogger, but he's created a whole bunch more.

Pretty dumb move.

Over on Huff Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dawn-teo/famed-anonymous-anti-pali_b_180313.html), Mel Roy had this reply:

"Time to do some sleuthing ourselves.

Depending on how Doogan obtained the information, he could be guilty of yet another ethics violation (Alaska State Ethics Code, AS24.60.060 - using his office to obtain private information about a citizen), as well as a crime (AS11.56.860 - making that information public)."

As MelRoy said...time to start digging everyone...

A list of contact information and action items can be found here:
http://www.bachmanneffect.com/2009/03/mike-doogan-ousts-akmuckraker.html

Here you go:

Sec. 11.56.850. Official misconduct.
(a) A public servant commits the crime of official misconduct if, with intent to obtain a benefit or to injure or deprive another person of a benefit, the public servant
(1) performs an act relating to the public servant's office but constituting an unauthorized
exercise of the public servant's official functions, knowing that that act is unauthorized; or
(2) knowingly refrains from performing a duty which is imposed upon the public servant by
law or is clearly inherent in the nature of the public servant's office.
(b) Official misconduct is a class A misdemeanor. (§ 6 ch 166 SLA 1978)

Sec. 11.56.860. Misuse of confidential information.
(a) A person who is or has been a public servant commits the crime of misuse of confidential
information if the person
(1) learns confidential information through employment as a public servant; and
(2) while in office or after leaving office, uses the confidential information for personal
gain or in a manner not connected with the performance of official duties other than by
giving sworn testimony or evidence in a legal proceeding in conformity with a court
order.
(b) As used in this section, "confidential information" means information which has been classified confidential by law.
(c) Misuse of confidential information is a class A misdemeanor. (§ 6 ch 166 SLA 1978)

And...

The legislature has found that high moral and ethical standards among public
servants in the legislative branch of government are essential to assure the trust, respect and confidence of the people of this state and further finds that compliance with a code of ethics is an individual responsibility; thus all who serve the legislature have a solemn responsibility to avoid improper behavior.
AS 24.60.010 Legislative Findings

A legislator or legislative employee may not use government assets for his/her own, or another person’s, private benefit, for a non-legislative purpose or for partisan political purposes. Government funds, buildings, equipment, and services should not be treated as the personal possessions of legislators or legislative employees.
AS 24.60.030(a)(2)

My opinions are decidedly left-of-centre, but I work for a large corporation where my views would not win me many friends. So I used a pseudonym to comment on a RW local political blog.

Well, needless to say, the people running the blog hated what I said. But, when they couldn't respond, they started this campaign to out me.

Their problem was that they had no evidence, proof, or facts to support their ridiculous RW talking points, so they had to fall back on the standard ad hominem stuff. When that didn't discourage me they started the campaign to out me.

From this I would conclude that Doogan's motives were an attempt to discredit the source since he couldn't refute it. Sad, but most RW motives are.

On the outing of AKMuckraker - just as there are progressive blogs, there are right-wingnut blogs. Thanks to Doogan, the wingnuts in Alaska have gleefully published AKM's address and telephone number. as for Mudflats - they are in maintenance mode. The site was getting overloaded with hits so they are getting more bandwidth. They will be back up within the next 48 hours.

Everything I do and write I assume can become public knowledge without warning.
I'd recommend everyone do the same.

I seem to recall the exposure of some global warming concern trolls as oil industry executives as having been a source of celebration in liberal spheres.

Exposure of anonymous sources allows scrutiny of the potential motives of the blogger beyond a search for truth.

In the case of AKmuckraker, it would be of high interest if she were a candidate for governor herself. Hiding behind a pseudonym claiming to be a neutral, concerned Alaskan should be richly deserving of ridicule. If Doogan couldn't dig up any links to ulterior motives, who's to say that the people who now know her identity won't discover something that makes her "attacks" appear self-serving?

People who serve justice and freedom whether by gun or pen can expect government retaliation. The more corrupt, the more likely the retaliation. This nothing new. The outrage seems melodramatic.