I am Tony Parrish
Down the East Lancs Road in Liverpool, a blog called Liverpool Evil Cabal has been courting controversy for a couple of months now.
Updated by someone using the guise Tony Parrish - “occupation: whistle-blower, interests: victory” - the website contained speculation about the running of the council. Here’s Tony’s own introduction:
The ‘evil cabal’ comes from the description given by former council Leader, Mike Storey to the wicked triumvirate that ran the council.
The blog, like many political and campaigning blogs, proved popular, too:
Statcounter tell me that this weblog has been visited by no less than 563 people in the two weeks since it first started. Which is a hell of a lot more people than I originally expected.
A couple of weeks after launch, the Liverpool Echo cottoned on and noted that anyone at the town hall had mysteriously blocked from viewing the site.
This didn’t stop Tony from publishing more allegations, however - see an example here.
The Daily Post and Echo archive provides a timeline of what happened next:
- Aug 10 - Council leader fumes as ‘evil-cabal’ site is blocked
- Aug 11 - ‘Evil Cabal’ website does not break law, say police
- Aug 14 - ‘Evil cabal’ website closes down after inquiry pledge
- Aug 15 - Was the council right to block Evil-Cabal website?
- Aug 15 - Campaigner calls for ‘evil cabal’ website inquiry
- Aug 22 - Suspended media chief quizzed over council blog
- Aug 23 - Blogger to face legal action
The latest twist, as spotted by Rob at Artisan Marketing, is the appearance of badges bearing the phrase “I am Tony Parrish” around Liverpool.And some enterprising person has also put tshirts up for sale:
6 Comments so far
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This is an important area for bloggers and it’s not all one way traffic. I’ve been reading elsewhere of someone accused of paedophilia by an anonymous blogger. That’s a serious allegation and if I’d have no hesitation in going to the courts if someone made serious and false allegations against me.
On the other side to that is the Maine blogger sued for attacking the state tourist office’s strategy (the tourist board lost).
It would be interesting to learn just how easy it is to discover a bloggers identity; how easily will Blogger and ISPs give details away?
By Stephen Newton on 08.29.06 6:36 pm
@Stephen: I agree with you. I think the ethics of these situations come down to: 1) substantiation and 2) public interest.
I can’t believe that the people involved in the Liverpool story can be making such direct accusations, apparently from within the council, without there being truth in them. Furthermore, if the author/s are in a bureaucracy like a city council they will know exactly the legal risks they are taking regarding defamation.
I think a strong argument has to be made for public interest here too — while making random accusations about people’s personal life doesn’t really benefit anyone, publicising damaging information about an elected council — which should be in the public domain anyway — is plainly to the public good (providing it’s correct — which I’m sure will be settled in the courts).
By Newfred on 08.31.06 11:54 am
Interesting debate this. And one that will go on and on no doubt.
Re. Evil Cabal: I noticed Cllr Joe Anderson, leader of the opposition, said this a month ago:
“While the website is not 100% true, some of it might be.”
By Mancubist on 08.31.06 12:32 pm
Go to my blogspot LIVERPOOL A COLLECTION OF LINKS AND BLOGS PART 2
FOR REGULAR UPDATES ON THE LIVERPOOL EVIL CABAL AND TONY PARRISH.
By Tori Blare on 09.08.06 2:28 am
It ain’t over yet….
By Tony Parrish on 09.11.06 6:09 pm
Bloggers will be furious at the response from the Audit Commission to the demands for a full investigation into the allegations on the liverpool-evil-cbal site. But we shall press on…
By Tony Parrish on 09.13.06 6:22 pm
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