Rosemary's Bloggy

Someone was calling Vogue model Liskula Cohen "'a psychotic lying, whoring...skank.'"

Now, twenty years ago, that sort of sentiment could conceivably have made its way onto the inside door of a toilet stall in the ladies room of a bar frequented by twenty-somethings who drink too much.

Twenty years before that, well, I don't believe we even had the word 'skank', but if we were going to call someone "'a psychotic, lying, whoring....skank'", we might have told a couple of girlfriends while hanging around the dorm room when we wanted to take a break from debating whether you could still read Brides Magazine and wear makeup  and oppose the Vietnam War.

And twenty years before that, a nice girl may have confided a more toned-down version of this to her Dear Diary, perhaps using a bit of code so that her nasty little brother or her nosy old mother wouldn't be able to interpret it. "LC can be so mean."

Toilet stall? Gabfest? Diary?

How yesterday.

Now, if you want to dish, you do it online.

Which is what Rosemary Port did in a blog called "Skanks of NYC" that she posted - anonymously, of course - on Google's Blogger.

I write "anonymously, of course" because, like so many others who are given to nasty trash talk that goes well beyond opinion and gets right into the realm of invective, and maybe even libel," Ms. Port's blog was unsigned.

Ms. Cohen, not surprisingly, didn't particularly like being called "'a psychotic, lying, whoring...skank'", perhaps because, while "skank" may be an opinion that someone is entitled to hold, once you get into "psychotic, lying, whoring", them's fighting words.

So she sued Google to find out just who was defaming her, and out popped Rosemary Port, a fashion design student who had apparently crossed paths (and claws) with Ms. Cohen, at least in Ms. Port's own mind. (Cherchez le beau, by the way. Ms. Port has suggested that Ms. Cohen had whispered sweet something or others into the ear of an erstwhile boyfriend. Mee-oww.)

Anyway, Ms. Cohen's inquiring mind wanted to know just who was writing such terrible things about her, and, as part of a defamation suit she mounted, the judge required that Google reveal Ms. Port's name.

Ms. Cohen, demonstrating restraint and general non-skankiness, dropped her suit once Googled dimed Ms. Port.

And now, Ms. Port - so rankled that Google has outed her - is going after Google for $15M, with a promise  - from her attorney - to take the case to the Supreme Court, if needs be. (I never thought I'd say it, but I do look forward to Justice Scalia on this one.)

Salvatore Strazzullo, her lawyer, said the organisation [that would be Google, and the source for this is obviously the Telegram] had breached a fiduciary duty to protect her expectation of anonymity. He said: "I'm ready to take this all the way to the Supreme Court."

Knowing absolutely nothing beyond what's written on my ACLU membership card about First Amendment rights, I'm absolutely rooting for Ms. Port's law suit to get jettisoned by courts at all levels.

I'm fine with those who need the safe harbor of anonymity so that they can express viewpoints that could put them in danger (think Iran election protest Tweeters). And I don't mind anonymous commenters who either can't think of a "handle" they like, or who just really don't want their names appearing in blog comments on the 'net.

But, personally, I am sick and tired of those who use "Anonymity" as cover for their skanky attacks, and then justify whatever they put out there are "free speech."

If it's free speech, have at it. Just have the decency to put your name on it, and be willing to defend away when someone calls you on it. ("Hey, I'm not a psychotic, lying, whore, and I defy you to prove that I am.")

Meanwhile, Ms. Port is turning the blame on to Ms. Cohen.

"This has become a public spectacle and a circus that is not my doing," said Miss Port. "By going to the press, she defamed herself."

And, of course, boo-hooing that her "right to privacy has been violated."

"[My] right fell through the cracks. Without any warning, I was put on a silver platter for the press to attack me. I would think that a multi-billion dollar conglomerate would protect the rights of all its users."

Well, Ms. Port, I wouldn't exactly say you've been put on a silver platter. The cliché I might go with is hoist on your own petard.

Maybe you were just venting a bit of NYC fashionista spleen. Maybe you were just acting like a nasty, mean-spirited, petulant little brat who should have been acting - as we used to say in the Dear Diary era - your age (which is 29), not your IQ. Maybe you really did think, as you claimed, that only two people would read it - you and Ms. Cohen.

But did it not occur to you that, just as Ms. Cohen may Google her name on occasion, so may plenty of others: friends, family, old flames, her aged grandmother who just got a PC, her kids (if she has any), prospective employees. And they may have seen that "psychotic, lying, whoring" stuff out there, not to mention the "hag" and the "ho" and whatever other clever bits you had going. And that this may well have damaged her professional and personal reputation. (Not to mention shocked her grandmother.)

So, Ms. Bolt, this is yet another case of acting in haste, and - if it's still done these days - repenting in leisure.

Now, when prospective employees, not to mention prospective boyfriends and in-laws, and new friends, Google "Rosemary Port" - and I assure you that they will - you will be seen, at least in the eyes of some, as a reckless, nasty, and thoughtless little piece of work. (Not to mention a bit of an age-ist. Old hag? Ms. Cohen is in her mid-30's. Good luck when the 40 year old hiring manager sees that one.)

Maybe this won't be held against you in the fashion world, but there are plenty of other worlds in which it will be.

What is it going to take for the "young folk" to realize that, if you put "it" out there, someone will surely come. And if you don't want to put your professional and personal reputations at stake, you will watch what you say.)

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Sources: Telegraph (UK), and - speaking of skanks of NYC - the NY Post.

I've blogged about anonymity a few times.

Here's one I did about JuicyCampus, an organization that cloaks its nakedly nasty, meretricious, and anything-for-a-buck heart beneath the banner of free speech.