Jeff Jarvis, yet again, on Public v Private:
The problem in the cases of ousted Gen. Stanley McChrystal and ousted Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel is not that they had opinions. Of course, they had opinions. Indeed, we should damned well want them to have opinions. If they each only accepted what they were told without doubts and complaints, without discrimination, they’d each be be very bad at their jobs, wouldn’t they?
The problem is not that those opinions were reported. Publicness — transparency, openness, authenticity, honesty — is good. It should lead to more trust. But here it didn’t. It led to public disgrace. Why?
The problem, then, is our myth of the opinionless man*.
Note: His asterisk, not mine. Read the piece to find out what it is.
I don’t want this blog to turn into ‘Leif Nordberg presents the Jeff Jarvis block quote hour,’ but here we are again. If you’re not excited for his book, well, then you’re not me.
