Thanks to Jozef Imrich for this link the CNN article, ">Blog-Linked Firings Prompt Calls for Better Policies. The article reviews some of the well known blogger firings. This part of the news is not new but I do like their conclusion, the need for better blog policies.
The article includes a picture and reference to the Delta Airlines attendant, Ellen Simonetti, who was fired for blogging with pictures of her in uniform. Her blog is Queen of the Sky: Diary of a Fired Flight Attendant, which has become very popular. She also started The Bloggers' Rights Blog which has attracted much attention. John Maloney pointed me to it. There is a list of “Blogophobic Companies/Organizations” on the site. Now, I think there are two sides to every firing and policy. I noticed that Microsoft was removed after a number of people rightly complained in the comment field. Microsoft has done a lot to support employee blogging and certainly does not belong of such a list. I see that Google is still there but it is my understanding that the person they fired admitted that he was wrong which causes me to have some concerns about the validity of the complete list. However, I am sure that some are guilty. A good way to stay off this list of suspects is to have a clear blogging policy for the protection of everyone.
There is a certain irony to the CNN article since, as I understand CNN has a no blogging policy for its reporters or, at least it had one at one point. CNN did not make the blogophobic list but that does not mean they have reversed their policy. It just may mean the list has some false positives and some false negatives.
Greetings Bill,
Joi is a savvy observer ;-)
I can't begin to imagine how hard MSM'ing about blogs is. It reminds me of the line from Jon Stewart on his show about blogging, "And that's CNN reporting on why blogs are much more interesting than CNN."
http://joi.ito.com/archives/2005/04/23/david_weinberger_quits_msnbc.html
[Joi Ito]
Posted by: Jozef Imrich | April 24, 2005 at 02:49 AM