The Painful Truth about Bloggers

Scott Burgess looks at an article by Terence Blacker, which purports to reveal the painful truth about bloggers.  In addition to giving it a thorough fisking, he mentions one reason why blogs are as successful as they are: 

“But, in the blogosphere, there is no accountability. The identity of the messenger and the integrity of the message are never called into question.”

One can only conclude at this point that Mr. Blacker is being willfully obtuse – he certainly can’t possibly be as naive and uninformed about blogging as he appears. Does he really believe that nobody questions the “integrity” of what’s written on a blog?

Frankly, this statement is just bizarre – the biggest problem facing a blogger who wishes to be taken seriously is the fact that what’s expressed on a blog is immediately suspect, simply because of the chosen medium. That’s why one has to go so far in checking and verifying the facts (via credible links, etc) included in, or supporting a post. Those bloggers who fail to do this, or do it poorly, are quickly ripped apart. Those consistent in that failure are ignored.

And that’s precisly it.  Blogs, and bloggers, are subject to fierce competition.  In order to gain a readership, a blogger has to demonstrate that he’s worth reading – consistently, and in a medium where anyone can write anything at all.  If someone wants to be taken seriously, he has to make sure he has his facts straight, and provably so.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 14th, 2006 at 5:09 pm and is filed under Vox Populi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. | 12 views | Trackback | Print this page |

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