Random Thought (Blog Editors)

I found a thought on blogging in a book I am reading called The World Is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman (a book I strongly recommend for business majors). In a small portion of the book, it details the problem of presenting false information in blogs and how this information can often distort the truth drastically, and even destroy reputations. The book says:

Yes, the reader in me loves to surf the Net and read the bloggers, but the citizen in me also wishes that some of those bloggers had an editor, a middleman, to tell them to check some of their facts one more time before they pressed the Send button and told the whole world that something was wrong or unfair.

Lets face it, no one is perfect. People make mistakes and there is often too much information out there to analyze at once. In many situations, people do just not have enough time to get all the information and include it in their arguments. Often, those missing pieces invalidate the argument. This is where blogging can get messy.

Sports, in particular, is one area where bloggers consistently judge players and organizations because they have a bias. If you read sports blogs, you realize that bloggers and those who leave comments often commit such errors. It is the readers responsibility to research each argument that is important to them, outside of the blog, if they believe someones argument is false so they do not fall into a circle of wrong and unfair discussion.

Lets say, for example, a blogger reads off an untrustworthy site that Curt Schilling was caught shoplifting a Kentucky Fried Chicken in Boston, Massachusets. A blogger gets the information from the site, presents it to his readers, and the news spreads like wildfire, destroying his reputation (as if it wasn't destroyed already). This could happen to me, you, and anybody else out there. There is nothing wrong with remaining skeptical about everything you read and/or are unsure about. As WWF Wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin was infamous for saying, "DTA: Don't Trust Anybody."

However, I like to have trustworthy bloggers that I trust will present me with fair and unbiased (to a point) positions. There is nothing wrong with having a sweet disposition toward a team and blogging in favor of that team. There is, however, something wrong with distorting the facts and using them to support your argument. Always be on your toes.