Blogger Ethics

I got the same info that Scott got, and I've also declined to publish it. But Scott is right in raising the issue as a hypothetical: When a candidate makes a big deal about his morality, but is hiding a personal history that is not just youthfully indiscretionate, but morally repugnant, where do you draw the line?

Here's a different example: Gretchen Schuldt, whose blog I quite enjoy, has been hitting Tom Reynolds about his home electric bills, and how he may be paying them from campaign funds. (Tom Reynolds is not the candidate Scott and I got dirt on.) I haven't touched that, either, since, crazy as Tom Reynolds is (video here), that's not an issue that I see as a winner for our side. In fact, I think now that it's on TV, it makes the campaign against Reynolds look kind of, well, petty.

Dave Diamond, in fact, asks why Reynolds's action is different from what Bryan Kennedy is doing. (For the record, I think the big difference is the level of documentation Kennedy's done that Reynolds, apparently, hasn't.)

I've struggled with how to cover legislative races on this blog, and while I want to do everything I can to help elect Jim Sullivan over that nut Reynolds, I don't feel right about doing it on anything of lesser substance. On the other hand, Reynolds is Gretchen's state senator, and she has a much more personal stake in that election than I do, and I can't really begrudge her the right to wage that battle the way she wants to.

Republicans and conservative bloggers this year have not at all been afraid to play really, really dirty, either--much dirtier than anything Gretchen's done. (The SSDC memo is a good example--Republicans got their hands on it June, but leaked it to bloggers this week, and waited until the bloggers leaked it to file a state elections board complaint. Dirty.) But I think I have a line I'm not interested in crossing. I don't know if you all like that about me, or if you have never given it a thought, but, well, there it is.

Where's your line? Is my line in the wrong place? Talk to me about this.