Mistaken Identity, Misbegotten Fury -

Mistaken Identity, Misbegotten Fury - Last April, City Pages writer Brad Zellar wrote a piece about his distaste for children, and drew parallels between his dyspepsia about kids and his views of the coverage of the war in Iraq.

I blogged about it. I made no secret of it - I found his views tendentious, specious, and not the work of someone who really had a valid perspective on the topic (at least as far as children went).

He responded in his blog . He took a couple swats at me (I don't care), and at his views on my parenting (I doubt his perspectives matter much) and my kids (I do care). I wrote about it, earlier this week, commenting unfavorably about Mr. Zellar's ethics (and yes, the background and thought process of someone with attitudes like his - although not about anything that wasn't observable in his writing).

Zellar left me a couple of comments - including, to be fair, a shot at some of my readers who may or may not have acted inappropriately - and posted this on his blog on Monday - headlined "There's Nothing Like A Pissing Match With A Guy Who Has A Bum Prostate Where His Brain Ought To Be".

And it's in this post that we get to the nub of the gist of the crux:

I think it might be fair to point out that this character --if it's the same guy I'm thinking of-- has had it out for me since he falsely accused me of stealing his harmonica on a camping trip in 1979. And the sad part of it was that we were like brothers until this unfortunate misunderstanding.

Ah. There's the rub.

Bradley:You have the wrong Mitch Berg. I never went camping with you, or anyone else, in 1979. I play the harmonica very well - and have never had one stolen. I doubt you could find where I was in 1979 on a map. I certainly have no idea who are are or where you're from.

Check Your Facts, Brad.

Now, I don't care that Brad Zellar attacked my character (or some Mitch Berg's character, anyway) on his blog. I don't care that he's had fun with the little tidbits of the job-hunting life and dating fiascoes that have dotted this blog. It's bad Karma for him, but it has no effect on my life.

I do care that he riffed on my kids, though - or anyone's kids. And I care that he did it on a blog that is an official organ of the City Pages, an actual "old-media" newspaper that, as I've allowed many times in this space, is home to quite a bit of superb journalism. A publication where people should have a higher sense of simple ethics than, say, Hesiod or Aurabass.

And that is all.

Posted by Mitch at October 23, 2003 10:32 AM