by Barry Cunningham

Real Estate Broadcaster and Investor

Author website

Okay, I have taken a full 24 hours to digest this blogosphere debacle before offering my 2 cents. In addition I have spoken to Glen Kelman, the CEO of Redfin as we interviewed him today on our show about this..this..thing of ours.

Glen, the consummate professional as always, denounced the now infamous blog post by Ms. Hian and terminated his relationship with her. It was obviously the right thing to do by a business owner responsible for protecting his brand and company’s image.

As the captain of the Redfin ship, it was an expected response and the swiftness of his actions is commendable and an attribute to his character. Glen Kelman is first class.

Now let’s get something else out of the way early here. It is obvious from reviewing the post that Kris Berg wrote, that it was an orchestrated shot at Redfin. It was most assuredly a well planned hit. This can not be denied. Anybody taking the time to read the post can clearly see the two to the back of the head that she fired at Redfin. Was this act supposed to go without anyone seeking some form of retribution?

So now comes Ms. Hian, feeling a little bit more than put off by Ms. Berg’s swipe at Redfin, and Hian, seeking to avenge the assault on her beloved Redfin unleashes a metaphorical torrent against Berg personally. Some thought there was an anti-semitic inference in the post but this has since been found not to be the case.

Personally, I found Hian’s post a bit non-sensical and basically blew it off as another blogger taking an opportunity to take down another. Problem was she made an unsanctioned hit at a “made member”. Kelman saw it coming, tried to quell the anger of the five families of the blogosphere, but the upheaval was too great.

No one could have envisioned the absolute s*%tstorm that quickly ensued. It seems that almost every prominent blogger from the RE.net world was absolutely slamming Hian for what she had written about Berg. Fuhgettaboutit, she was done!

A ful fledged RE blogosphere whacking was in plain view. It culminated with Hian being taken for a ride and now in true Godfather form, she now sleep’s with fishes. Harsh sentence for writing a blog post but hey, ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Wow!

As I watched this unfold, it made me wonder. What did Hian do that was so wrong? Was she taken to task because she wrote for Redfin? Was she taken to task because she went after a beloved member of the RE blogosphere?

What was it that she did so wrong? I ask this because surely each and everyone of you reading this post has seen a blog war or inflammatory post by some blogger or the other. In fact many of you reading this have instigated or made incendiary personal “attacks” at many in the blogosphere.

So what was it Hian did so wrong? Is Berg beyond reproach? I have never met her and she is obviously well liked but since when did it become off limits to question someone and to hold them accountable for that which they write?

If you write a post that is designed to inflame and draw ire, are you not supposed to expect to receive some form of comeuppance? Isn’t that the reason some write controversial posts?

So what gives? To take a line from a Mel Brooks movie, “we all do it, you do it, she does it, he does it, we all do it”. Are you telling me, seriously telling me, that what Hian wrote deserved that kind of response? I am not referring to the punishment, I am referring to the response. As she wrote for Redfin, only Kelman can determine the appropriateness of sentencing and he has spoken in that regard quite clearly.

No what I am talking about is the angry, vehement response that was almost mob-like in fashion. I could almost hear Michael Corleone speaking as I read the collection of angry responses..”don’t ever take sides with anyone against the Family again. Ever”.Yeah…uddawise we’re gonna haveta whack ya..capisce?

Well, I think that while Glen at Redfin took care of what he had to take care of. In the wake of this episode, the question to me and many others remains.

What was so wrong with what Hian did? If the answer is as simple as Berg’s a friend to many and that she has many friends and she’s a made member…then fine, ok, that’s a good answer. However there has to be more here. Are you telling me that somebody got taken to task because of an inflammatory blog article? We all might as well call it a day if that’s the case!

I have read comments on many blogs and had captured many for this post, but decided this post would be much too long if I posted a list of comments from the many blog wars I have read about or participated in.

Many of the posts and comments I have seen on some blogs were far, far, more incendiary and there was nothing remotely close to the type of sanctioned assassination that was executed on Ms. Hian.

So, it just makes me and many others wonder as to the hypocrisy of the reaction by some who sought Ms. Hian’s head on a platter.

I am not condoning what either Ms. Berg or Ms. Hian wrote. If it weren’t for the fact that she wrote for Redfin we would probably not even be talking about this.

C’mon, let’s be real here. If Ms. Hian had her own blog this kind of blog war would have driven traffic to both of the combatants blogs and shot after shot would have been taken. Ms. Berg’s supporters would have been in her corner and Ms. Hian’s supporters would have had her back.

We’ve all been there and done that. The problem here is Ms. Hian left her rear flank open and was vulnerable. Her weakness was exploited and she was taken down hard and fast. She had Fredo guarding her and she got whacked. Mission accomplished. Hian miscalculated her strength and obviously underestimated her opponents strengths. Maybe she should have dressed up Enzo the Baker as a thug to scare off the hitmen that came calling after her.

However, it’s safe to assume, that if she had not been a contributor on Redfin’s blog, if this was a post on her own blog somewhere in WordPress land, she would still be around today. Although the uproar may have been as strong, it would not have ended up with her being rubbed out.

Obviously if she had an Active Rain blog, or if she wrote for us or if she wrote for Bloodhound or a number of other sites, do you think her execution would have been so swift, if at all?

Of course not! Hian screwed up, she did not know her place and she was felled by the support of an obviously better armed opponent..and worst of all she fought her battle on someone else’s turf. She was doomed before she finished typing.

Let’s not kid ourselves. We have all been offended by something someone wrote on a blog somewhere. We’re all adults. People regularly take personal attacks on the President, on many a politician, on sports figures, on actors, on Britney…you name it, personal attacks are a part of life if you place yourself in the public eye. Ever take a gander at some of the content on the Huffington Post or Daily Kos?

The expectation of a personal attack is magnified if you write something that is unpopular or deemed controversial. If not so, why write such a post? Answer: You want someone to read what you wrote..that’s why.

Ms. Berg took a shot, it provided tremendous exposure for her, drove a great deal of traffic to her blog and I applaud her for being the “Google pandering ho” that we all aspire to be. I mean that in quite the Tomlinsonian type of way.

RIP Ms. Hian, you drew snake eyes on this one. You went against the family and got a visit from Al Neri. Next time do a bit more research, pick your battle correctly and make sure your base is secure in case you need to retreat or have support if necessary.