It was not long after this weekend’s “The Emperor has no Clothes” was posted that the questions started coming in. Among the more popular ones: ‘who is Michael Barnabas?’ ‘What does he do?’ ‘Which part of the Industry? ‘ And so on.
Among the calls/emails comes the question, is Barnabas my wife? Soheyla Kovach’s name is at the top of the blog post. But the answer is, no. The person who submitted a blog post’s name is at the end of that particular posting.
Soheyla’s login was also used to post Marty Lavin’s last column:
The WordPress blog software simply has this as a feature, that the person who logged in/posted – their name can appear. This has nothing to do with authorship.
So please do not read more into it than that fact. This is a good example of how a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, and how assuming – playing ‘Dick Tracy’ – can get someone into trouble.
Barnabas has been submitting articles to us for about half a year. Go to MHMSM.com main page and put his name on the search tool near the top right. You’ll find a lot of columns.
Let me reply to those who ask, who is Barnabas, that my own wife doesn’t know. I trust my wife.
So as a news publisher, just as I would protect a source on a news tip that wants to be anonymous, so too I will protect this person as a source. Because this person IS a source to us.
We don’t have to look beyond George F. Allen’s “MH Ronin” columnist (who is also writing anonymously, or under a pen name) to recall that there is a long, time honored tradition in America and beyond of such writing. Some of our founding draft documents in America – and the writing opposed to them – was done at one point in time without the person writing being named.
Having now stated that I won’t reveal this person, let me share the wisdom of this position in the real world of manufactured housing, and you will see why writers and publishers have long done this in America and beyond.
For discussion’s sake, what if Barnabas was:
- An MHI staff person, or a key MHI member?
- A MHARR staff person, or a key MHARR member?
- Was an employee (senior management) of:
- a HUD Code manufacturer
- an industry lender
- a public official who knows our Industry
- a community operator
- retailer, supplier, insurance company, etc.
I hope this what if helps make the point. Sometimes people may feel the need to stay behind the scenes in order to get something done. That does not mean we agree or disagree, just stating the realities of the issue.
Barnabas does what he/she does for his/her own reasons. It may be a scenario like the above, or a different one. Most assuredly, this person is involved with our Industry.
To put this in context. We have had a number of news items submitted anonymously. We have had anonymous comments posted. So long as bad language is avoided, and no legal or ethical lines are crossed, we allow it. We put a strong disclaimer on the end of this Barnabas column, which was just a restatement of our periodically published editorial policy.
So Barnabas is getting no special treatment.
So long as I know something of a person submitting an article, and they stay within the rules of civility (no foul language), obvious legal and ethical boundaries, I would extend the same courtesy to you or others as needed.
Most adults know the cartoon character Dick Tracy. Who is Barnabas? Trying to figure out who he/she is would be (to me anyway) a waste of time.
Far more valuable is the idea of discussing the contents.
Let’s not focus on the messenger, but the message.
Industry professionals are free to disagree, agree, parse the Barnabas commentary, whatever you want within the rules of civility and the established rules of legal and ethical commentary.
Post a comment, or submit your own Industry Voices guest post. It can be on a topic Barnabas covered or another, so long as it has general industry interest and is not ‘advertorial’ in nature.
Please put Industry Voices in the subject line of any email to us for an article you wish to submit.
We as an industry have a lot to get done. We are shrinking in size, when we should be growing like wild. Let’s focus on issues, please, not on our editorial policies, which has often been stated.
Having expressed this, we are moving on to other things, thank you. ##
