Despicable

A nice column from OU's daily paper:


COLUMN: JuicyCampus.com successful despite despicable defamation
Eric Combs/The Daily
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Sometimes I wish Al Gore, or whoever it was, never invented the Internet.Sure, the World Wide Web has offered a great deal of convenience over the years, including things like instantaneous communication, access to hoards of information in seconds and the ability to pirate overpriced music for free. But every advantage has its drawback.
For a long time, I thought Facebook and MySpace were the worst things ever spawned from the information superhighway. That was until I heard the words “JuicyCampus.com” and “University of Oklahoma” in the same sentence. JuicyCampus.com — a Web site to which people can post anonymous gossip — is the new undisputed champion of appalling when it comes to surfing the Web. And the man who created it is a commercial genius. But he’s also a jerk.
Can you think of many things more fun than publicly defaming your worst enemies? Can you think of any easier way to do it than by sitting behind the anonymity of a computer screen that doesn’t require you to sign in or post a username? That’s apparently what Matt Ivester, the founder of this thing, figured out in October, 2007.
If you attended high school within the borders of the United States, you’ve figured out by now that people enjoy some good gossip. However, the same gossip that flies down the hallways of fraternity and sorority houses at twice the speed of electricity used to lack the threat of mass publication due to slander and libel laws that our Constitution thankfully contains. uicyCampus.com took care of all that.I have to admit that looking at the site itself and scouring through the OU section is quite interesting. If you were wondering who the easiest girl to pick up at a Campus Corner bar might be, there’s a thread for it. Ever wanted to publicly question the sexuality of an entire fraternity? You can do that too. Or maybe you want to insult an entire race or religion. Regrettably, that’s also fair game. I’m not at all surprised at the Web site’s success, even though it’s been in existence for such a short time.
But I’m disappointed that such useless banter, much of which is likely false or exaggerated, is so powerful a tool in spreading erroneous and derogatory information concerning enemies, ex-girlfriends and the like. The issue here is not that the site’s content is childish, wrong or even salacious in nature. I’d say it’s fairly obvious and agreeable that it is. The problem is that there are some perfectly decent people (and some not so perfectly decent people) who are having their reputations smashed by people who may or may not even know them.
The problem here is that the people who operate this defamation machine are essentially fostering an environment in which intolerance and hatred are the status quo. The sad part is that even with all the public outcry and complaints, I don’t envision the site’s popularity suffering much because of the ease and anonymity it virtually promises visitors. The site will remain popular because gossip sells advertising, which is why people like Jerry Springer and the lovely women from Sex and the City can be wealthy and popular in this country.
I’m certainly not going on a campaign to try to entice people to quit using the site. I’m smart enough to realize that’s not going to happen and that the site’s popularity is likely in its infancy. The only thing my fellow naysayers and I can hope for is that Ivester and company will eventually grow so tiresome of complaints and lawsuit threats that they’ll get rid of the site for good. Until then, the rumor mill continues and the OU greek community’s cyber-battle rages on. But here’s hoping that, as JuicyCampus.com’s grasp on collegiate life continues to grow stronger, so too will the outrage at the consequences it produces. Here’s hoping Ivester and company will have some sort of epiphany that inspires them to rethink their career path.
If not, I’ll just paraphrase a line from a film that starred award-winning actor and noted academic Pauly “the weasel” Shore. Folks, stop wheezing the juice.

Eric Combs is a journalism senior. His column appears every other Tuesday.