Controversial College Blogger Reveals Identity

By: The Michigan Daily, via UWIRE For several months, University of Michigan senior Paul Tassi was one of campus?s most notorious figures, even though most students didn?t know him by that name.

On his blog, hosted at collegeotr.com, Tassi wrote under the pen name Johnny Quest ? a slightly different spelling of the name of the cartoon action hero. He ranked the top 10 fraternities and sororities on campus and judged this year?s sorority pledge classes by attractiveness. He insinuated that members of one fraternity drug and rape women attending their parties.

Before classes began this fall, Tassi scoured Facebook.com for the ?hottest? incoming freshman female. Then he posted her picture and some of her interests, predicting that she would join Kappa Kappa Gamma in her first semester. His reasons: ?Her hotness, brunetteness and Jewishness.? She did.

Tassi and two other student authors also wrote posts about campus news and events, but it was Johnny Quest?s discussions of the greek system that garnered thousands of page views and hundreds of comments. The most popular post on the blog, which ranked the top 10 fraternities and sororities, had 8,000 page views and 170 comments as of Sunday night.

Many commenters criticized Johnny Quest for posting anonymously. In one instance, he replied saying it was essential to his goal of critiquing the greek system.

?It?s the only way to do it,? he wrote. ?I don?t need a bunch of assholes storming my apartment because I said they pop their collars or wear their hats crooked.?

But now, Tassi has unmasked himself. The blogger wrote a final entry Sunday night revealing his identity and displaying his photo. In the background was a poster of the cartoon character who was Tassi?s online namesake.

Tassi, the film editor of The Michigan Daily, chose to stop writing for the blog and reveal his identity to his readers after Karl Stampfl, the editor in chief of the Daily, discovered that Tassi was the blogger and told him to choose between the two publications.

In his post Sunday night, Tassi said he plans to keep writing for the Daily.

?Their position is that when people find out I?m employed by the Daily they may interpret things I?ve said that some might think are racist, sexist or anti-greek as being the viewpoint of the Michigan Daily,? he wrote. ?I won?t even address the racist and sexist concerns as anyone who reads my site clearly knows I speak almost entirely in sarcasm and I?d like to maintain that I?ve never been anti-greek, only anti-douche.?

Stampfl said he decided Tassi shouldn?t be allowed to work for both publications because some of Tassi?s entries, though satirical, could be considered sexist or offensive toward the greek system.

?I?m not saying that Paul Tassi is any of these things ? I really think he?s a great guy,? Stampfl said. ?I want to be very clear that those aren?t necessarily the views of the Daily.?
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This story appears courtesy of UWIRE, a news service powered by student journalists at more than 800 universities. To learn more, visit here.