OH! MY! GOD! Pseudonymous hobby-blogger's identity revealed

The Left is experiencing fits of righteous near-hysteria in reaction to the outing of Canberra public servant Greg Jericho as the writer blogging as Grog's Gamut, a self-described hobby blog.

Here's the condensed version of the story:

PhD bureaucrat (Jericho) starts blogging (2008);

Jericho blogs on various topics with an emphasis on film (his specialty);

Jericho's readership remains tiny until he blogs about the media's coverage of the 2010 federal election;

The ABC takes notice of Jericho's criticisms;

Jericho is recognised as an astute political commenter but his blog traffic remains less than stupendous;

The Australian's John Massola outs Jericho as the writer of Grog's Gamut;

The Left goes nuts;

Jericho is famous.

Really, Leftists have their knickers all in a knot over nothing. Jericho is unlikely to have violated the public service's terms of employment and should be free to continue blogging, either pseudonymously or using his real name. And even if political blogging is found to conflict with his terms of employment it is highly unlikely that he will suffer significant sanction, and definitely should not be terminated.

PhD Jericho is a talented writier and his movie reviews are definitely worth reading – Hell, who can help but enjoy a knowledgable commenter who likes both North By Northwest and Mulholland Drive – but his views are typical of many Leftists who object to the prominence of Murdoch's News Ltd. outlets' right-of-centre views.

Regardless, Crikey's Leftists are especially vocal, with Jeremy Sear and Possum particularly indignant. Sear's objections to Jericho's outing are especially ludicrous in that he objects to my alleged use of a pseudonym in publishing personal information about him freely available to anyone with Google access.

I enjoy reading Grog's Gamut, wish Jericho well, and hope that he keeps writing but must say that the drama queen hysterics from the Left aren't going to work in his favour.

Update: Such is Grog's Gamut's influene that I this afternoon went out and bought Mulholland Drive and am about to watch it yet again.