Time magazine just launched a politics blog called Swampland and right now all hell is breaking loose in the comments threads, where Time Washington bureau chief Jay Carney is being schooled by a legion of angry bloggers for his unwillingness to admit a mistake in a post. It didn't help Carney either that he chose to sneer at his critics by comparing them to Limbaugh-like "dittoheads." Some of the commenters are over-the-top mean, but if you want a rough education in the ethos of the political blogosphere, you could do worse than reading through the thread.

This comment by someone named "Hesiod" sums things up well:

I see you still haven't gotten the hang of this "blogging" thing.

For years, we bloggers have heard whiny criticism from the "mainstream media" that we are a bunch of unwashed, uncensored, unedited rumor machines, who are more apt to make flase claims that do some actual cogent and fresh analysis.

Over the years, however, we have developed a self-correction mechanism called "comments," etc. People point ouit your errors, embarrass you, and make you more careful the next time you post something.

In other words, you have to become your own fact-checker and editor.

So, it would behoove you to start checking your facts and backing them up before posting a comment on this blog, rather than whine about criticism you get for posting unsubstantiated BS and your off-the-top-of-your head conventional wisdom.

Don't blame us for correcting you. Aknowledge your errors, or the imprecision of your language, and do better next time.

Amen.

Technorati Tags: blogger ethics, Blogging, Jay Carney, Swampland

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