Funferal

Agonism update

I wanted to add a note about my earlier ‘Plagiarism‘ piece. As some of you will have seen, Jay from the Agonist posted a comment saying he’s discussed the matter with the Stratfor people, and is rectifying the attribution issue.
He’s obviously been following up the various postings on this matter, and is doing his best to patch things up. I think he is to be commended for this. His previous actions can, perhaps, be put down to naïvity and over-enthusiasm, and his initial response, though perhaps slightly abrasive, seems to bear this out. The end result is what counts in this case, and I’m glad that things seem to be working out.
As a sidenote, this seems to be another (albeit somewhat trivial) case where the blogging world is self-policing. There are two ways that this can go. First, it is possible that bullying (for lack of a better term) can occur, as people are unfairly forced to follow some centrist norm. Second, rational criticism can encourage people to reconsider their actions and self-correct. I think that the second scenario is what has happened in this case (though the embarrassment from the high level of publicity may have provided incentive to engage with the issue) but I wonder if bullying has happened in the past, and would welcome examples. I’m also open, of course, to other interpretations of the Agonist case.