I was just beginning to enjoy (in a strange sort of way) my regular jousts with Dan Roberts, the proprietor of the Huntsville-based Daily Dixie blog.
I had grown used to having my mental health questioned and analyzed, and I was sort of looking forward each day to discovering what new term Roberts would come up with to describe my general nuttiness.
So imagine my surprise when I entered the blogosphere this morning to find that Daily Dixie had vanished into the mist--or as we Southerners like to say, Gone With the Wind.
One reader has already raised the question that immediately popped into my mind: Did Roberts' jihad against me and Legal Schnauzer somehow play into his decision to take down Daily Dixie?
I have no idea. My understanding is that he also had been attempting to trash Glynn Wilson, of Locust Fork News. Maybe taking on two progressive bloggers at once was too big a task for the Dixie Guy.
You don't have to be an expert in media law to realize that Roberts probably defamed me in his recent posts related to Legal Schnauzer. But I haven't threatened legal action against him. And if someone has threatened legal action on my behalf, I wish they would clue me in.
Perhaps the most curious thing about the "Dixie dumping" is that Roberts didn't just write a post, saying, "I'm tired of blogging for a while, think I'll put up a 'Gone Fishin' sign." Lots of bloggers do that, but leave the site up--at least for a little while.
Roberts took down the whole darn thing evidently. It's like waking up one morning to discover the house next door, which was there when you went to bed, is gone.
Did someone suggest to Roberts that maybe it would be a good idea to dismantle his blog and dump any evidence that indicated he had been producing defamatory material?
Heck, I don't know. I'm as buffaloed as anybody, and if my memory is correct, his final post was about me.
Roberts' writings recently had a Karl Rovian quality, with frequent use of variations on the word "lunatic." And Roberts' dismantling of his blog reminds one of Rove's efforts to do away with e-mails. But then, I could be reading too much into this--after all, I'm paranoid
We welcome any insights from readers on the demise of Daily Dixie.
He took on the big dog bloggers, and lost...
ReplyDeleteBingo Schanuzer. My sentiments exactly.
ReplyDeleteActually, the entire structure of the site is intact. I just re-directed everything to that page for now so that there's no mistake and no way to leave comments (that's a good way for me to come back into the game).
ReplyDeleteThere's plenty of material if you really want to bring a lawsuit.
"Rovian" and "jihad?" And you wonder why Dan thinks you're nuts?
ReplyDeleteit is a bit odd. i've seen many bloggers sign off over the last couple of years but can't remember one that didn't leave his/her site up for a good while.
ReplyDeleteConspiracy!
ReplyDeleteSee how much ends up at archives.org
ReplyDeleteWhen somebody posts something defamatory like that, take a screenshot of the page and keep it in a safe place. Never know when you might need to retrieve something like that.:)
"i've seen many bloggers sign off over the last couple of years but can't remember one that didn't leave his/her site up for a good while."
ReplyDeleteActually, the last prominent Bama political blogger to go dark, Jeff at politicsinalabama.com, did the exact same thing. I wonder who ran him off the internet super highway???