Paging Miss Manners

So a large chunk of the blogosphere has recently been devoted to CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, which credentialed several bloggers to cover it. It sounds like interesting stuff, and it's cool that they are letting bloggers cover it, even after Davosgate--people at a conference might be a bit nervous about letting people cover them in realtime while they're still formulating their ideas. But watching people discuss and synthesize on the large scale is exactly why conferences are interesting, and I can see why an old school journalist from a respectable paper like the Wall Street Journal might be feeling a little threatened.

Or something. How else to explain a grown man--indeed, a middle aged man, presumably socialized in kindergarten like the rest of us--walking over to somebody else's unoccupied laptop, ask nothing, and use it--for half hour at a time--twice? From The Agitator:

After an odd episode earlier this morning, it seems Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund returned to Bloggers' Corner later this afternoon, this time knowing full well that the unoccupied computers left on the tables were private property, belonging to the bloggers. He hopped on another open laptop, again without asking permission from its owner, and took about a half hour to file a story, even as the blogger whose computer he'd commandeered stood waiting.

The second blogger is Robert Cox of The National Debate, and the man has got photographically documented patience on the geologic timescale--from Crosswalk's Kevin McCullough:

Cox in a very coy voice asks Fund, "will you be long?"Fund: "Nope I just need a minute more..." (he had already been on about 20 at this point...)Cox: "I believe they had some software installed on these machines - so be careful - they may be recording your every keystroke."Fund: (A dumb-founded look upon his face, a medium size gulp in his throat) "Um...ok...well that should be fine. I just wouldn't want anyone to read my e-mail..."In the length of time that he persisted on Cox's machine I was able to snap the photos you see in this story and e-mail them one by one from my phone to myself.Not long after that - Fund departs, no "thank you"s, no "I'm sorry for using your private computer, etc.".

Then McCullough recounts how Cox, upon repossessing his computer, discovered that John Fund had left himself logged into the Dow Jones server and left himself logged into his email account. The ever helpful Cox then sent the following email:

John,Good to see you at CPAC. Recall that you were using my laptop while I grabbed lunch.I hit the BACK button to get back to where I was when you sat down and found your Outlook Inbox was displayed. You also left my computer logged into the WSJ mail server; anyone could have come by and sent e-mails from your account and possibly used your remote connection to access the Dow Jones servers.You might want to be more careful when you jump on someone's PC.

Cox has generously started a Fund for Fund to get this employee of the impoverished Wall Street Journal a Blackberry, but I'm thinking it's the two bloggers who deserve a second laptop, or some other large shiny gadget, as a reward for their extreme politeness.

Beyond the amusement factor, I don't really see this incident as a blogs vs. mainstream media thing, and it certainly seems to be bipartisan in its outrage factor. (I found out about it on Atrios, where Fund is wanker of the day, and Fund's first victim was an equally patient if slightly less comically lucky Doverspa at Redstate.org) But the WSJ may want to hire Judith Martin for a weekend workshop soon. 
¶ posted by Saheli | 11:54 AM