Read his Facebook post. He owns it, and knows that he is going to take his lumps. And while he doesn’t defend anything, I feel compelled to do so.
What shit heads like Cris Barrish don’t get is that blogging is interactive; more improv than anything. There is an ongoing dialogue with an audience and that influences the performance.
I use the word performance intentionally. Mike, like all bloggers, was to some extent playing a part on Down With Absolutes. Your blog persona is not you. You indulge in hyperbole and comedy for an audience that you know understands the rules of the road. That doesn’t make it fake or fraudulent. It doesn’t excuse anything and if anyone ever bothers to dredge up shit I’ve said, I’d hope to own it with the poise and grace that Mike has.
But if you take a shocking sentence and think you know a blogger from that sentence you are either being played or playing someone. If you are a “journalist” and build a “story” around random sentences that someone has spoon fed you, you are no journalist. You are a shithead.