Shoot The Messenger

I'm glad I don't have to go to Broward court all that often.

When I do, I find the usual annoyances -- parking, getting in, the meshuga elevator system, crowded/dysfunctional courthouse, lawyers wearing ratty tan blazers, some of the judges.....

One thing I don't often (ever?) think about -- JAABlog's poisonous effect on the Broward judicial system.

Apparently, however, others do:

Contributing to the tumult, Campbell said, was the Internet and people who post anonymous comments railing against judges.

He did not refer to specific Internet sites or blogs, but JAABLOG, a courthouse gossip blog that highlights judicial missteps and encourages lawyers to run for judge, has become a popular forum for anonymous, critical – sometimes racist – comments about judges.

“We have people using the Internet as a means of communication to force humiliation on people they may disagree with,” Campbell said. “We cannot allow this humiliation to continue, and I believe that’s one source of our problems at the Broward County Courthouse.”

Exactly -- a key "source" of the problems in Broward has finally been identified!

I love Skip, but on this he's a bit off base.

I'm pretty sure racism and humiliation can be found just about anywhere on the internet, and sometimes even around us in real life.

And talk about misplaced priorities.

Can anyone really say, in the wake of the Rothstein debacle, that one of the core problems with the Broward legal system is the existence of a bunch of dips*#t commenters on a blog?

If so, Broward's in worse shape than I thought.