The essential problem with the growing wave of crap is that it serves to define ethics downward. Some folks are trying to stem that tide.

And welcome to the blogosphere. I don’t agree with some of what you said, but you write with a good voice.

Mr. Confidential: Good to see you on the site.

When you have had people steal your intellectual property to build their own credibility, when you realize that lawyers are paying people to pollute your comments with spam, when you have (most importantly) had clients’ mommas tearfully tell you that they trust you because they have read everything you ever wrote on your blog, I suspect that you may come around to my way of thinking, ethically and aesthetically. Meanwhile, I’m secure in my assessment of the ethics of using a ghostblogger, and unrepentant.

Whether lawyers should publicly call out other lawyers who are cheating (ethical violations) or polluting (aesthetic violations) on line is a question that wouldn’t suffer from public discussion (five-word answer: general deterrence requires hurting feelings). I’m sure that Scott Greenfield, Brian Tannebaum, Eric Turkewitz, and the bloggers named in Eric’s post can easily defend their positions against all comers, as can I.

This is not purely an intellectual exercise to us, by the way. At least four of us have attracted the attention of a psychopathic cyberstalker—a genuine convicted rapist sex offender—for our troubles revealing out-of-control unethical lawyer marketing.

But Rent-A-Brain is a strange place to start the discussion of whether those funding unethical marketing should be named and shamed. In that post I didn’t name any of the lawyers responsible for the ghostblogging; I merely linked to the page where they unabashedly named themselves as having paid someone to “increase their credibility.” Anyone who thinks linking to a page of testimonials is “cyberbullying” is—with all due respect—a damn fool.

I did later name the lawyers, but that was only when the ghostblogger asked me to remove that link and my O.D.D. kicked in—I don’t know what she was thinking.

Brian: Thank you as well. I may not understand the full implications of the term “cyberbullying.” But I did not intend to call anyone scum, certainly not Mark Bennett or Scott Greenfield. Appreciating the debate they started, I was merely participating.

There is nothing debatable about these issues, you either are the author of the material on your blog, or you’re paying somene to write for you for the purpose of appearing as if its you. Kennedy wasn’t a lawyer bound by the rules of professional conduct. He was a politician – someone trying to convince the public he was the answer to their prayers.

Trends happen. We could all be wearing doubleknit polyester leisure suits today, but, thankfully, we’re not. We get to pick and choose which trends are worth following and which should be fought. Watching lawyers turn themselves into used car salesmen, or perhaps streetwalkers is a better analogy, is a trend worth fighting. We may not win, but I would rather lose fighting on the side of honor and integrity than sit out the fight scratching my head.