The New Republic, with its shameful history and shameful present, is certainly a place where I like to see this kind of trouble occur. With some exceptions, the TNR crew and product are nasty, not just wrong.
That said, I fail to see why it's necessarily a sin for a bloggger to trash posters who offend him. Doesn't it depend on how provoked he was, and how far he went? Seems to make this can make a blog better, not worse.
"That said, I fail to see why it's necessarily a sin for a bloggger to trash posters who offend him. Doesn't it depend on how provoked he was, and how far he went? Seems to make this can make a blog better, not worse."
He wasn't using his real name; he invented IDs and replied to criticisms of his writing via use of his sock puppets, which is a definate no-no in the blogging world.