Be careful what you BLOG for
Posted by Bryan on December 4, 2007
We all know the saying, “Be careful what you wish you”, but a recent event makes you want to be very careful about what you blog about. According to an article currently posted on the cover of cnn.com, a school teacher was arrested for a pro-Columbine shooting remark. The teacher allegedly claims that the comments were sarcastic, but others say they were threatened. Personally, I’m not too worried about the specifics. To me, this incident points to a larger issue - there is a large audience on the WWW, and you never know who’s on the other line.
On a related note, a teen recently committed suicide after some arguments on myspace.com. You can catch more details at Foxnews.com. Blogging is a real for of communication with real people. I think we all need to be very careful for ourselves and our audiences and blog responsibly.
With that in mind, I suggest that anyone interested check-out some fairly recent and high quality guidelines suggested by Kristine and Matt.
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I love it when one of the liberals who helped to create the minefield of political correctness that we call modern American life, steps on one of the very mines his cohorts laid, and blows his own leg clean off. Hee hee! In the old days this would have been described as being hoisted on one’s own petard.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:26 am
I think everyone who writes a blog needs to be aware of stuff like this. Since a lot of the law regarding blogging is still to be written, there are a lot of grey areas right now.
Definitely an interesting topic.
December 5th, 2007 at 10:34 am
Gee, Phil, but you are a twister of truth, aren’t you. It wasn’t liberals who decided that free speach wasn’t free speech anymore, but the neo-cons currently running this country. Had you bothered to read the article, you’d have learned that this teacher is a conservative, not a liberal. So the conservative’s police state policy of intolerance nabbed one of their own. Had you studied anything other than revisionist history, you know that political correctness was invented by conservatives during the Reagan administration.
December 5th, 2007 at 11:34 am
Phil, I will defer to “Not Phil” for comment.
Kristine, I absolutely agree, and I’m thankful that the OBS is there to provide us with some helpful resources all along the way.
Not Phil, well stated.
One other note: I never intended this post to become political. Just a work of caution to the wise to be careful.
December 5th, 2007 at 12:04 pm
Perhaps we read different articles, Not Phil? So this teacher was a conservative, eh? According to the article I read, this guy was lurking on a conservative blog, under the name “Observer”. He didn’t go off on his nut rant until the conversation turned to the subject of overpaid teachers. The article I read also mentioned that this guy was the former head of the teachers union. He doesn’t sound like much of a conservative to me, does he to you?
And Conservatives invented political correctness? I believe you are mistaken. [ACTUAL CONTENT EDITED] Like most liberals,…er…sorry, Progressives, you like to bandy words like “tolerance” and “diversity” around quite a bit, but your version of tolerance really means tolerance for your viewpoints, and intolerance of everyone else’s. So it is with this teacher - he said something stupid, dare I say “hateful”, and he got called on the carpet for it. I stand be my original assertion - this clown was hoisted on his own petard.
December 6th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
Phil, Thanks for your comments. Please know that I encourage discussion on this website. However, I will not tolerate any discussion that includes degrading comments. Therefore, I edited portions of your previous comment. If you take issue with my decision, please contact me privately. Again, I am thankful for your comments, and I encourage a continued and respectful discussion.
December 6th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
Dear deer,
Like most writers, I can occasionally benefit from the judicious application of another’s editorial skills.
Thanks,
Phil
December 6th, 2007 at 3:55 pm