Writing in Public, Take Two (or Blogging Ethics):
After reading more comments by Dave Winer of Scripting News about “editing” (aka “deleting”) blog posts in this thread on Paolo Valdemarin’s blog, I really got irked.
Winer carps a lot about webloggers being journalists. However, journalists are expected to be accountable for their words. Winer doesn’t expect webloggers (or at least himself) to take the same responsibility even though he calls himself a journalist (the comments about “writing with integrity” in that last link are particularly hypocritical).
What Winer does is not editing — tweaking, clarifying, correcting. What Winer does is delete or “un-publish” his previously public comments. He speaks publicly, changes his mind, and attempts to make it appear as if the comments never existed. The ability to “un-publish” is fairly unique; it’s only possible if the “journalist” controls the distribution media as well, as in blogging. Print & TV journalists don’t have the personal luxury of deleting their article, column, or commentary after it has been made public; their only recourse is a public retraction. Winer undermines the credibility of weblogging as a journalistic medium by deleting inflammatory comments he makes in public, instead of posting a retraction, then attempting to whitewash his disingenous “un-publishing” as “editing.”
His argument against it? “There’s no ‘rule’ against it and this is how I want to do it; if you don’t like it you can take your ball and go home.” Lame. There is a “rule” against it — it’s called ethics. Maybe Dave should review the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics, particularly the statements in the last section (titled “Be Accountable”) such as “Admit mistakes and correct them promptly.”