OK murder suspect's blog is source for news story

An ABC News report on the arrest of an Oklahoma murder suspect mines his blog for information about his state of mind.

Police arrested Kevin Ray Underwood in connection with the murder of 10-year old Jamie Rose Bolin, who was bludgeoned and suffocated to death in Purcell, Oklahoma.

Along with the standard journalistic convention of interviewing friends and family who describe him as "quiet," "boring" and "trustworthy," the story includes quotes from Underwood's blog, which reporter Sean Murphy still feels compelled to define for readers as an "online diary."

On his blog, an online diary that he had kept since September 2002, Underwood described himself as "single, bored, and lonely, but other than that, pretty happy."

In an entry from January, Underwood said he was embarrassed about how many gifts his mother bought him at Christmas and how his father was proud of him for helping him assemble a computer desk for his sister.

Underwood, who used the screen name "SubSpecies 23," mentions cannibalism in a separate post, asking "If you were a cannibal, what would you wear to dinner?" and responding: "The skin of last night's main course."

In an entry dated Feb. 4, 2006, Underwood wrote that he struggled with depression and social interaction.

"Pretty much the only time I believe in God is when I blame him for something," he said. "Or, when I'm really depressed, to cry and beg him to make me better, to make whatever is wrong in my brain go away, so that I can live like a normal person.

"That's all I want in life, is to be able to live like a normal person."

In September 2004, he wrote that his depression deepened after several months without taking the medication Lexapro, an antidepressant also used in the treatment of anxiety disorders.

"For example, my fantasies are just getting weirder and weirder. Dangerously weird," he wrote. "If people knew the kinds of things I think about anymore, I'd probably be locked away. No probably about it, I know I would be."

This is an intriguing trend.

Before long, the first generation of political candidates reared during the blog age will begin running for office. Official blogs that are used for political expression are one thing, but personal blogs will also be considered fair game for journalists and political operatives. Nobody could argue that there is an expectation of privacy for thoughts expressed on the Internet. Anything written during an unguarded moment could be used as news fodder.

This is a pretty forceful argument in favor of anonymous blogging, or no blogging at all, unless you really know what you're doing.