Anonymous and worthless

An Illinois senator used the Internet as a powerful tool to help him get elected to the nation's highest office. Millions of online readers, many of them young Americans who previously felt disenfranchised from the voting process, became involved and made history.

Locally, a newsletter e-mailed religiously by conservative Jim Hollingsworth kept his audience up to date not just on the latest election news, but on his opinions, too. We're convinced that these e-mails and the network of fellow conservatives who read them helped tilt local primary election results more firmly to the right.

These are what we consider not just effective but appropriate uses of the Internet to sway public political opinion in opposite directions. They're appropriate because the sources were steadfastly identifiable and responsible.

But not everyone lives by these standards. You may not see the termites, but you can detect them from the rotting wood of blogs and online comments including sites like this newspaper's. The upside is anyone is free to express an opinion. The downside is that the vast majority choose to do so anonymously, rendering their opinions roughly equivalent to termite scat.

And now the termites are busy here. There's an e-mail campaign that links to a website established to unseat Sheriff Rocky Watson in 2012. Just after the primary election, the following e-mail went out to undisclosed recipients. It was signed "Citizens of Kootenai County."

"Please visit our website to revoke Sheriff Rocky Watson from office. We also called for the removal of County Commissioner Rick Currie which fortunately happened yesterday."

We e-mailed "Citizens for Kootenai County," asking them to identify themselves. One of them did but politely declined to share other names with the newspaper or to identify sources on the group's website.

If this is a sign of campaigning to come, we opt out. And we encourage all of our readers to do likewise.

Anyone on the political offensive who's unwilling to be publicly identified and therefore held accountable lacks credibility. Coincidentally, they end up lending more credence to the target of their malignant remarks.

Responsible citizens will not empower anonymous flingers of invective but instead will insist that they stand behind their words or risk being ignored.

Press editorials are written by Managing Editor Mike Patrick. They represent the views of the newspaper's editorial board, comprised of Patrick, Publisher Jim Thompson, CEO Duane B. Hagadone and President Brad Hagadone.