*sigh* It’s all coming down to this?

There are days I wonder if the “golden era” of Eastern Shore blogs has come and gone, with little real change effected. 

I just checked my “favorites” list and under “Eastern Shore Blogs” I have 18 different blogs listed. Now let me see…we have Salisbury News, operated by one Joe Albero. Because of his, shall we say, attitude, we have now FOUR bloggers (by my count) who started their blogs to take issue with his. And this doesn’t count Gunpowder Chronicle who has his own differences with Joe but also writes on a number of other topics instead of being all anti-Joe, all the time.

And then we have the grandfather of the local bloggers, Duvafiles, which up until yesterday had its own parody site called Duvalies. (As of today it’s now a private website.) One person who’s been suspected of being the operator of Duvalies formerly had his own website called Justice For All?, that man being former County Executive candidate Charles Jannace. He shut down JFA? after the election, joining the ranks of other late lamented blogs like Fertilizer for our Bay and Westside Wisdom.

Looking to the east in Worcester County, it’s pretty much an all-out flaming war between three of their local blogs as the folks behind Worcester, WorcesterRight, and Integrity Matters Only Sometimes are battling in and out of their various comment sections. When I noted a comment about one of these folks becoming “the Joe Albero of Worcester County” I started to wonder if the local blogging scene has jumped the shark.

To change gears a bit, I’m going to take all of my readers back and do a little bit of history as far as the local blogging scene goes. This history is as good as my memory is, so maybe a better term would be a “narrative.”

The first local blog I became aware of was Duvafiles. What got me started reading it was the hullabaloo back in early 2005 when Bill Duvall made his infamous “wetback” comment that got him in a lot of hot water. Being of fair mind, I was curious about the context that it was written in, and I enjoyed his use of the various character names for local personalities.

A month or two later, I discovered the original Delmarva Dealings site along with the Justice For All? site and started perusing those and commenting occasionally. This was also about the time I started my original blog called ttown’s right wing conspiracy. So there were only a handful of local sites back then, plus one that wasn’t truly local but run by a local native who lived upstate called Goldwater’s Oracle. Now it’s known as Gunpowder Chronicle.

About the fall of 2005, a certain commenter and photographer who posted frequently with Charles Jannace became fairly well known. His name was Joe Albero. Together they blew the lid off problems at the Salisbury wastewater treatment plant and at the Salisbury Zoo. I suppose it can be argued that in the next year or so both these men became local celebrities and they parlayed their newly found fame in different directions. With help from Joe Albero, Charles Jannace entered the political arena; and with help from Jannace’s website, Albero branched out into his own site, originally known as National Joe-A-Graphic but evolving into what’s now known as Salisbury News.

Meanwhile, new players came into the local blogging scene. Delmarva Dealings left us for awhile but returned late last year. Crabbin’ and Delmar DustPan were among the most-read out of about 8-10 blogs that debuted in the early part of last year, and both are still around. It wasn’t until close to the end of the year, after a nasty divorce of sorts between Jannace and Albero, that many of these new bloggers came online. These anti-Albero blogs (The Maryland Townie, Paranoia and the Homunculus Photographer, Joey Albero is an American Idol, and Yh8 are four) became bases on which to flame Albero while Joe worked on trying to “out” the people behind them.

So we have the abovementioned feuds going on. It makes for (sometimes) interesting reading but unfortunately all of this infighting is what’s giving the blogging “profession” a black eye.

Now I sit here and toil on a little website that I call monoblogue. Like the rest of these folks, I’m based out of the Salisbury area. But I like to think I’m just a little different, particularly since I don’t focus on local issues as much as the Albero site does, nor do I focus on personalities like the anti-Albero sites do. I suppose some of this is because I’m part of a larger group of bloggers throughout the state of Maryland. If you look at the members of the Maryland Bloggers Alliance, you’ll find that I’m politically way to the right of a few of them, particularly Bruce at Crablaw and Stephanie at Jousting for Justice.

But when we in the MBA have disagreements, we focus on the argument and not the personalities behind them. We treat each other with respect and complement each other when it’s due. It’s actually a nice experience sometimes to get through the “Eastern Shore Blogs” part of my reading and on to the “Maryland Bloggers Alliance” folder I have. At times I get through the Eastern Shore blogs and feel like I need a shower. (And I’m sure that some people will read this and start slinging blame at others.)

Now I’ve never met any of my MBA cohorts; however, I have met a few local bloggers, including Charles Jannace when he was still on his JFA? site. On a few occasions, I have played pool with Joe Albero and a group of friends; also, I’ve met “Cato” from Delmarva Dealings and may be working more closely with him on certain items in the future. I have zero problems with them personally, but that could be a matter of being relatively close in our political views. It could be that I’d get along with my fellow bloggers on the left, but there would have to be more civility shown than I’ve seen on some of their sites.

I guess the other comment I have is about “outing” bloggers and commenters. In most cases, I’ve commented either with my full name or under “Michael” which is probably just as good. (It depends on how I’m signed up for the website.) So it’s not like I hide what I say behind some assumed name. Besides, I also keep a log of what I consider my best comments here. (Just click on “My feedback” under Internal Links.) It’s also no secret that I already hold a political position, and I have a disclaimer that notes that my views aren’t necessarily those of the Wicomico County Republican Party. I don’t speak for them and Lord knows they don’t always speak for me!

But it’s needless to say that I’m becoming quite disappointed with most of the local blogging scene, as it’s sinking down to the level of “gotcha!” politics. With the Salisbury City Council elections upcoming (and national ones on the horizon), now is not the time for the Eastern Shore blogs to descend to the level of tabloids. Many complained about the Daily Times and how it slants the news, but right now the local blogs are hardly better. And because I get tarred with their brush anyway (anyone remember Ron Alessi? Or the situation with the Wicomico County Republican Club?) I’m taking it on myself to call bullshit on that. It’s time for all you children to settle down and play nice.

 

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.

18 thoughts on “*sigh* It’s all coming down to this?”

  1. It’s like watching a train wreck in slow motion, or perhaps a chain-reaction car wreck on a foggy highway . . .

    As Rosario Dawson’s character said in Clerks II while watching to the dude with the Donkey, and I paraphrase, “Utterly disgusting, but I can’t look away . . .”

  2. Or maybe you could liken it to watching Springer, I Love New York, or Flavor of Love . . .

    You know it’s total crap, but you just can’t help but watch to catch the next farcical situation that arises . . .

  3. Of course, after I saw your comments I moderated the one two posts below about Doris Schonbrunner and how she was alleged to continually be promoted within the Sheriff’s Department. The train wreck continues.

  4. Michael,

    Have you removed Duvalies from your list? Even I have to admit, some of these anti albero blogs are very funny. Some are outright crude but you know what, that’s freedom of speech at its best. I kinda of like knowing people can go to those sites and see just who they’re dealing with. The other side is, they’ll never get the hits I’m getting each day because people quickly become bored with a one subject Blog. Things will change in time and get back to normal. I’d say look for several Blogs to drop off the face of the earth after the elections. Till then, thanks for boosting my numbers every day.

  5. Actually, quite a few have dropped off the face of the earth already, and in other cases they’re not updated on a regular basis.

    But to answer your question, no, I’m not one of the chosen recipients of Duvalies.

  6. Hi, Michael – Greetings from the ice-laden Western Shore. Baltimore County spent my tax money well to send a plow into my neighborhood to seal my car in tighting with compacted sleet/snow/frozen rain. My wife and I took great joy (ahem…) hacking that stuff out with the claw side of two hammers (recommended.)

    I have noticed that blogging culture on the Eastern Shore does seem much more, well, intense and especially intensely local than one often finds over here near Baltimore. Baltimore County has perhaps 1.4 to 1.6 times the population of the entire Eastern Shore, but blogging density is a lot lower, especially on local issues. Or at least blogs that we can find. Perhaps some of the challenges and tensions you describe are actually a sign of long-term activist health.

    Let me say here that while I stand to your left politically, I admire your pieces about 50-year plans to move policy and debate into greater accord with your vision of how things can improve. We need more long-term thinking as an entire society, liberal or conservative or whatever.

    Best wishes for continued success – Bruce

  7. Monoblog, I enjoyed your post and your review on local blog history. I am in total agreement with you about the drain that some of these blogs may have on ones psyche.

    Although founder, I am only one person involved in the existence of yhate.org. I have no ax to grind, nor do I have any affiliation with any other entity within the Salisbury area let alone any left or right side of any platform.

    We at yhate.org apologize for any offense you may have thought our site was trying to establish. Our goal is to establish campaign against hate and to make light or fun of it when portrayed in blogs, television, government, or other areas of public attention. We at yhate.org assure you that we have no intention of focusing solely on a singular personality but reserve the right to parody when one acts out in hate.

    We have not attacked Albero by way of threats, vulgarity, or ill feelings toward him. We have however made fun of his actions such as publishing photos of pedestrians without their consent, bias targeting in photo journalism, and (justified?) outbursts within public sessions.

    Since this city is within my own locality, Albero’s cursing out elected officials, posting attacks on public pedestrians as they cross his lenses and repeated threats, all stood out to me like a sore thumb. So in fun, I shared his site with my friends who also could see the humor in his actions. So in all honesty, Joe did inspire my portion of the yhate development. But the other members at yhate that have their own localities and agenda’s that motivate their participation in the yhate campaign.

    At the time of yhate.org’s creation, we were completely unaware of any “Anti-Albero” sites. They were not discovered until after we were already up and running with Albero being our first feature. Otherwise we would likely have used a different target from another small town.

    If you feel that you have a good “hate” target for us to pick on, please feel free to contact us and we’ll gladly put it/them in our cross-hairs as well.

  8. yh8 said…..
    “outbursts within public sessions.”

    This I’d like to see. At what time have I ever had an outburst in a public setting? This has never happened and this is just more of the hate/lies you keep spreading.

    I will be the first to “defend” myself but you have never seen me go after anyone in a public setting.

    There are very few of you who spread such hatred towards me and exposing so many wrongs will certainly bring out those defenders who simply want to discredit me to hide their illegal activities.

    It has been proven time and time again that the Mayor of Salisbury, Jim Rapp, Ron Alessi, Dave Winslow, John Jacobs, Mike Dunn & Gary Comegys have in “fact” covered many things up and like a pain in the tail, I have exposed them.

    There’s a good reason why I point fingers at some of the commenters being affiliated with these people, because I have “proven as a fact” that illegal activities of serious nature and expense to the taxpayers have been exposed.

    Why else would someone come and attack me for exposing the Zoo, when it has been proven they in fact were illegally dumping raw sewage and chemicals into the river? There have been some 200 animals a year dying there! Why else would someone come to the defense of the Mayor, Jacobs & Winslow when the City was illegally storing human feces, dumping more than 1,000,000 gallons of untreated water every day into the river? Why would someone defend these same people when such a huge human feces pit was illegally in place for some 20 years and they knew it, they knew the liner was failing and it had only been guaranteed for 30 days, not 20 years? Might I add tons and tons of construction debris the MDE had already sited them for years ago and rather then cleaning it up, they added more and more to it.

    Granted, the MDE, (IMO) dropped the ball on the last item but the Mayor went public stating they did nothing wrong and she was found to be a complete liar!

    Mike Dunn not recusing himself over Sassafras as well as anything to do with the Bank of Delmarva when he in fact admitted AFTER he had already voted for numerous advantages for them and not once did he recuse himself?

    YH8, you need to look much deeper into the reality of what’s going on around you. The Salisbury Zoo has a real bug up their tails about my taking pictures, too bad. It’s a Public Zoo, “anyone” can take pictures there, period. Now you and a very few others want to criticize me for taking pictures and exposing them on my Blog. Again, too bad. If the Mayor wants to walk around in shorts in the middle of the winter with cellulite dripping off her thighs, snap, snap, I’m taking pictures of this “public figure.” I have the right to do so and I have exposed many wrong doings in the City of Salisbury.

    You may not like me but you’ll have to live with me. If you don’t want your picture taken, say so. You should notice how 90% of my pictures in the public arena show the back of people, not the front, unless they’re a public figure.

    The few people out there complaining nowhere near outweigh the people who enjoy what I post daily. If this weren’t true my numbers wouldn’t be skyrocketing daily like they are. Learn to live with it and try taking less time complaining about what you don’t have the talent or time to do yourself. Oh, that’s right, you use a cell phone yourself personally to take pictures of me and then you have the nerve to complain about my doing so.

    It should be widely known that YH8 posts comments of hate under a different name that link back to his Website. That will probably change after he reads this article but he’s been that stupid to promote his site under different names because he’s that desperate to get hits.

    I have nothing more to say……

  9. Michael,
    What happened on my blog last weekend was unfortunate to say the least. I am a very mild mannered person. Usually. I do think I was justified to defend myself. I even gave fair warning to leave me alone. Apparently, I’m not the only person to have had a run in with that person. Will that episode occur again? I truly hope not. But as I have stated on my blog, I will not be bullied.
    I don’t consider your post an attack, o r you a bully. I just wanted to clear up any misinterpretations by anyone 🙂
    Thanks for your time.

  10. I apologized to monoblogue for any offense our site may have contributed to his post and attempted to distinguish the differences that separate our site from those that REALLY hate you. I had not intention of bringing a mess to monoblog’s own site.

    Sorry Joe, not to offend — as much fun as you have been as a subject, your only relevant to local news — in other words, you aren’t exactly a magnet to the hits our site seeks. So, unless you somehow go ballistic or something, your yesterdays news, it is unlikely that you could generate any further interest for our demographic.

    I’m not certain exactly who it was you were addressing here, and and it seems neither are you. If you think that I am connected with the “Joe-Hater” sites you are mistaken. I can only respond to the parts of your comment that pertain to me.

    “outbursts within public sessions.”
    — Okay, maybe “disruptions within public sessions” would be more accurate.

    “this is just more of the hate/lies you keep spreading.”
    — Where?

    “Why else would someone come and attack me for exposing the Zoo”
    — I’ve never mentioned the subject.

    “Why else would someone come to the defense of the Mayor, Jacobs & Winslow”
    — I never have, and likely never will.

    “Mike Dunn not recusing himself over Sassafras as well as anything to do with the Bank of Delmarva when he in fact admitted”
    — huh? Don’t know anything about it, irrelevant to my comment.

    “The Salisbury Zoo has a real bug up their tails about my taking pictures, too bad. It’s a Public Zoo, “anyone” can take pictures there, period. Now you and a very few others want to criticize me for taking pictures and exposing them on my Blog.”
    — I’ve ever mentioned the Zoo, their policies, nor your photos of them.

    “If the Mayor wants to walk around in shorts in the middle of the winter with cellulite dripping off her thighs, snap, snap, I’m taking pictures of this “public figure.”
    — I’m not complaining about photos of “Public Figures”.

    “If you don’t want your picture taken, say so.”
    — It is my belief that you did not provide this option to the “hung over” chef, the “gay” trio, or the homeless trash picker. Am I mistaken?

    “You should notice how 90% of my pictures in the public arena show the back of people, not the front,”
    — Even from the backside, it is easy to recognize downtown pedestrians in such a small city.

    “Learn to live with it and try taking less time complaining about what you don’t have the talent or time to do yourself.”
    — I’m sure anyone would agree, our site demonstrates it’s own talents, and we are living quite fine with it. Thank you for the suggestion.

    “Oh, that’s right, you use a cell phone yourself personally to take pictures of me”
    — Assumption on your part, not that the technique matters much.

    “and then you have the nerve to complain about my doing so.”
    — As earlier stated, I’ve no complaints on publishing photos of “Public Figures” — and yes, you are one.

    “It should be widely known that YH8 posts comments of hate under a different name that link back to his Website.”
    — An assumption again. Although I have offered criticism of your methods used to make a point, I have never posted anything hateful about you. Perhaps you suspect me for someone else’s actions Mr.Barrie-Boop.

    “That will probably change after he reads this article but he’s been that stupid to promote his site under different names because he’s that desperate to get hits.”
    — More assumptions. If I am already using an anonymous identity, why would I need to use another to promote my site? That just doesn’t make much sense.

    In closing, I’m sure you can relate with the waste of our time it would be for us to continue this dialog on monoblog’s site, so let’s simply allow the readership to view our sites on their own and allow them to evaluate our sites for themselves. In the good spirit that Monoblog has posted, I assure you that no negative comments will be made by me on your site. This can be verified by my IP address which happens to be 71.200.121.7

    Once again, my appoligies to Monoblog

  11. No need to apologize. As I’ve said on many occasions, a good comment advances the point of the post. Between you and Joe, you present a good microcosm of what has plagued the local blogosphere.

    This may be WAY too broad of a subject for Yh8, but I’d love someone to target the hate that permeates much of our political discourse, particularly when it comes to our last two Presidents.

    Back on point. In many ways, this post has achieved its goals. It appears that Yh8 is going to move on to other issues and Joe Albero is going to set his new website up in such a way that some of the less intelligent and more personal comments won’t make it into the blogosphere. Best of all, it’s pumped my readership up and maybe introduced new people to monoblogue.

  12. As one of the authors referenced in your post, I would like to comment to add my two cents to this discussion. I am not known for my brevity, so I will try to keep this short. I have contributed to the national political discussions on both conservative and liberal blogs of the Eastern Shore, debating issues and presenting points of view that I hope would give pause to those that had not completely made up their mind on a particular issue. However, there are times to debate the issues and times to recognize the vital role that certain players have in the political arena.

    I started my blog on Joey as a result of my disgust at the unchecked havoc that Joey has ravaged in his vendetta against those whom he feels has wronged him. Joey has done much good for the citizens of Salisbury, but it has been mentioned before, and bares mentioning again is that all he has done has been done out of spite for those whom he is trying to bring down. The tone of the debate of Salisbury politics has been muddied by Joey’s strains to tie every perceived wrong in the City to his real and imagined enemies. He does not want to hold public officials accountable; he wants to punish them for personal slights that he has interpreted to be of an enormous nature. He has made this fight personal, not political. All of this dispite that fact that he is not a citizen of the city, county or even state.

    On my site I merely attempt to draw attention to the hypocrisy of his posts and to embarrass him into a little journalistic restraint and integrity. I have tried to maturely debate him on the issues, however he has declined. He has however, posted under pseudonyms to cause trouble and throw insults. He brings nothing to the debate but finger pointing and accusations.

    I would propose to you that while our websites may be excessive and appear to be immature, it is his hateful posts that cause trouble and are some of the worst that I have seen in my politically active life. Worse of all is that for awhile it appeared that many people believed that Joey had good intentions and began to follow him. Because of our attention to the truth, there has been some progress made of late with Joey as the tone of his posts have been a little more muted and his accusations a little more based in reality. Slowly but surely he is becoming someone who can positively impact the political discourse.

    In starting my blog, I was relieved that many people have begun to see the crazy that pervades him, and I see more and more people turning away from his divisive rhetoric. I take no public sides in the local political debate, yet I do expect that an open and mature discussion of the issues, devoid of gossip and innuendo, be the centerpiece to the local debate. It is a cliché, but I truly believe that you should “disagree without being disagreeable”.

  13. I have to agree with you Michael. Our country is far too populated for us to rely solely on two families to run us into the ground. Lets get somebody, ANYBODY other than a Clinton Bush into office.

    Sounds like a fun project fer Yh8 to look into.

  14. Micheal said…
    “This may be WAY too broad of a subject for Yh8, but I’d love someone to target the hate that permeates much of our political discourse, particularly when it comes to our last two Presidents.”

    As per your request, we targeted the subject at our site ;-D. Dunno if that’s exactly the message you had in mind, but it opens up the platform.

  15. *sigh* indeed.
    After our lil forum, and Joe’s response to one of his first commenters at his new site, I thought the HATE would have at least been a bit more restrained.

    Sad to say (from my perspective anyway), only 3 days later, he has turned the focus from informing us about the WMDT forum into this?
    http://www.sbynews.com/index.php/site/comments/the_mayor_does_lunch_with_randy_taylor_on_the_plaza_today/

    He’s even attacked Vernon Powell for their STILL having graffiti? I have a photo on my blog showing the west side of Joe’s own building. It’s still on his as well.

    I’m not judgin, I’m just sayin. Salisbury News doesn’t seem to need commenters to convey hate.

    — This comment is Hate Free!

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