No privacy
Written by Tom Pounds | President / Publisher | tpounds@toledofreepress.comA few years ago, following a victorious, albeit unpleasant, confrontation in court, comments were made in the heat of victory at a closed-door Toledo Free Press staff meeting.
An intern working with us went home that day and blogged about the court decision and the meeting, including all the flush-with-victory comments that were made behind closed doors.
Very few of those comments would be considered publishable or even civil. Of course, those blogged-to-a-few-pals comments were discovered by the adversaries and used to further condemn our organization. It was a lesson for all of us on how new technology can add fire to old problems.
As mayoral spokesman Jason Webber learned this week, even comments posted to a “private” Web site or social networking site can be breached and publicized. SwampBubbles curator Chris Myers obtained unflattering comments Webber wrote and posted them on his site.
As bloggers sort their roles and responsibilities in this relatively new frontier, and the lines between journalism, reporting, blogging and opinion become blurred and intertwined, there will undoubtedly be many more victims caught in the gears.
Whether Webber was being judicious or foolish, and whether Myers was being a responsible reporter or a reckless one, the urgent lesson for anyone with a stake in public life is that any technology can fail, any human’s mind can change, and there is no such thing as private.
There are wondrous advantages to the MySpace, Facebook and Twitter frontiers, but there are also unforeseen pitfalls, and the wise pioneer will be exceedingly careful when venting, reporting or being creative online.
Thomas F. Pounds is president and publisher of Toledo Free Press. Contact him at tpounds@toledofreepress.com.
