Johnson County Supervisor Rod Sullivan apologized on a radio show last Thursday for cursing out commentators on the Iowa City Press Citizen’s website. For those who’ve not followed this tragicomedy, Sullivan’s user profile on the site is private. Website commenter Donny_Dubrow criticized Sullivan for having a private user profile asking, “Are you afraid of accountability? Being on the public record? Being caught in a lie?”
Sullivan responded in an email saying, “Fuck You, Donny.” Donny, whose real name is Yale Cohn, an Iowa City resident, then forwarded the emails to the Press-Citizen, who broke the story.
Apparently this isn’t the first time Sullivan has gone troll-hunting. Last year he threatened another commenter, Iowa City resident David Dowell asking in an e-mail, “How about Rod saves you a trip and comes over to personally kick your ass?”
I stopped laughing 15 minutes after reading the articles. You’d expect this type of heated exchange in South Korea, but not in Iowa City.
Lord knows I empathize with Sullivan and sympathize with him to a certain degree. Many commentators on the DI’s website have lobbed their own salvos at me. They’ve called me lazy, a nincompoop, and called my credibility into question on several occasions. They’re trolls — that’s what they do. The lack of personal contact in Internet communication has drawn out the freaky freakies from the woodwork and lowered our inhibitions when it comes to civil discourse.
