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Blogger blogs MSM article on his blog
By adamg on Thu, 09/28/2006 - 12:01pm
In cased you missed it, local blogger Ed Prisby is on the front page of the Globe today, in a cautionary tale about how your posts can come back to haunt you (in his case, in a court hearing on whether a Cambridge city councilor and then candidate for state Senate was drunk during a Boston car accident; a court clerk ruled he was not).
Prisby blogs about the article:
... If you must blog, if you have something you want to say, choose your words. Think about what you're saying. And, if you're a lawyer, advise your clients not to blog. If they must, they definitely should blog about anything even remotely close to the same universe as what they're there to see you about.
Tomorrow: football picks.
Carpundit, like Prisby a member of the bar, considers the issue:
... It helps to think before you write. Oh, and it helps to be anonymous.
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Comments
anonymity
I've considered the question about whether its better to be anonymous. I don't think it is, necessarily. I think people that post anonymously are tempted to say things they might not otherwise say. And eventually, if someone really wants to find out who you are, you'll be found out. Then, it'll be that much worse because as an anonymous poster, you were pretty wild with your comments.
The main reasons I choose anonymity...
My concern is that I may express a fairly tame opinion (ex: 'Kerry Healey is a terrible candidate for governor') and one day, when I apply for a job or an internship, my future hypothetical boss happens to be a big donor to the Healey camp. S/he then googles my real name and sees that statement. It may change the way this person sees me. It may affect this person's decision to hire me.
Plus, the more I learn the more I change my mind. If the internet is semi-permenant, I don't want to be locked in to every statement/opinion I make today. I've been wrong before; I really thought Iraq had WMDs and the US would be involved in a fairly short war. I do not want to be tied to that opinion forever. Again, what if that is the only thing an employer sees during a google search?
And to be fair, if I were in a position to higher someone and I found out the candidate held simmilar political views as the Margolis brothers, it would certainly affect my opinion of the job candidate. I am not saying it is right, and I don't feel good admitting this.
I know that it is illegal to ask job candidates questions about political affilliations, etc. I am not saying I would conduct a wich hunt to out potential new hires. All I'm saying is that people often judge people based on irrelevent, trivial data.
The fact is we do (sometimes right, sometimes wrong) make guesses about people's real life persona based on their online persona. First impressions are hard to shake. We all find out wierd tidbits about friends and co-workers down the road; and upon reflection it is common to think 'if I knew that when I first met you, we never would have been friends'. But becuase you get to know the real person first, this trvial piece of data assumes its propper designation as trivial.
My fear is that perfectly legit statements I make could come back to haunt me.