Whining Mayor West

Via the Washington Post, this article on Spokane Mayor Jim West:

After what Mayor James West called his "brutal outing" by a newspaper that published transcripts of his conversations from a gay chat room, he complained in an e-mail to the city's commission on race relations. West asked: "Should we all fear that our private conversations will be splashed publicly and out of context for all in our sphere to see?" The answer, Internet privacy advocates say, is "yes."

As a Washington native, I have particularly strong views on Mayor West. Setting aside my initial (but intense) distaste for any gay politician who votes against the needs of the LGBT community, I think Mayor West's claim to privacy is laughable.

If The Spokesman-Review (the newspaper that outed West) had broken into his computer and lifted his emails, that would be different, but in this case, some smart people figured out what his chat ID was on Gay.com and based their investigation entirely on what he was doing in public chat rooms.

The lesson to be learned here is one that we, as GSPM students, were taught on Day 1 of Orientation: be careful what you say and where you say it. I clearly remember Dean Arterton warning us to not talk about work at bars, where anyone can (and will) hear you. As online political organizers, we should apply that lesson to the Internet as well. The buzzword "online privacy" will only go so far, and will not protect individual stupidity.