Blog Ethics

Some might think the title words are mutually exclusive. Certainly digital diaries they have received beaucoup attention lately with "blog"the word of the year, bloggers the people of the year at ABC and Time, the latest Pew report on blog popularity, and Fortune declaring no business can afford to ignore them. Inevitably defenders and critics lined up to tell bloggers what to say and how to say it. Cyberjournalist may have been the first, and the venerable Poynter suggests traditional journalists and bloggers can learn from each other, although Steve Outing appears to favor bloggers adopting journalist's ethics. Why bother? Because once you put your words on the Internet, they are officially published and available to a much wider audience than only putting your words in print offers. They (and you) are protected by copyright law and the first amendment (for U.S. citizens) and equally subject to laws about libel and slander and plagiarism and other infringements of the intellectual property laws. Before you say, "It's just a blog!" or "It's only my opinion," you might want to subject what you're about to spout to the old three-way test: Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?

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