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On December 30, 2005, David B Lat, a 30-year-old assistant federal prosecutor in Newark, US, sent an intra-office email announcing that would be his last day in office. In mid-November, in an interview to New Yorker magazine's Jeffrey Toobin, he had revealed, much to the disbelief of the blogosphere, that the young female blogger of Underneath Their Robes, the deliciously juicy blog on the US judiciary, is neither very young nor very female. It was himself.
Lat is not the first blogger to be 'outed'. He may well be the first well-read blogger (a blogger who is read by many, and not a blogger who has read a lot) to have volunteered his outing though.
Surprising, considering he knew more than well, that the profession he was in, was not very conducive to phrases like "superhotties of the federal judiciary" or "bodacious babes of the bench".
But volunteered outing is no fun. Fun was when Washingtonienne was still going out with Capitol Hill staffers for lunch and accepting $400 in cash as gifts in return for some favours that she unabashedly blogged about. She didn't out herself.
She was outed by the collective investigations of a network of readers and bloggers among whom, wonkette played the lead role. Book deals, hot, hot speculations, law suits, new jobs, playboy centrespread offers, fake pictures and much more followed. Washingtonienne became an obsession.
While her outing was quite a coup and caused much distress to senior staffers with matching initials as the characters of her blog, there are other anonymous bloggers who generated greater interest and still managed to stay anonymous.
The greatest amount of reader's interest in the true identity of the anonymous blogger is reserved for bloggers who either write explicitly on sex or have strong sexual undertones.
And nobody wrote sex more tastefully than belle de jour, the 'London call girl' who discussed French poetry with her clients. Storied literary sleuths, most notably Don Foster, who revealed Joe Klein as the author of 'Primary Colours', spent much time and energy unsuccessfully, in uncovering the true identity of the writer, after the blog won The Guardian's best written blog award in 2003.
And many 'literary babes' from Lisa Hilton to Sarah Champion has found themselves in the list of suspects. Once a substantial book deal was on, it was in the interest of the agents also to protect the identity of the author. The book may not have been the best seller it went on to become if readers knew it was the fictional account of a writer who has not so much as sat next to a call girl.
Speculation is rife on the net as to what Lat might go on to do. He has announced that he is moving to DC for work. Did he out himself as he has plans for major career shifts? Will he go into television? And will commentary on the hairstyle of justices become an integral part of legal commentary on television?
Blog-In is DNA's weekly take on the blogosphere. Send your comments to blogin@dnaindia.net
