Rewriting Blog Entries

Posted on August 8, 2003 in Blogging Site News

I want to make it clear that I rewrite blog entries. I don’t do this to avoid being nailed for impropriety: I do it to either correct a fact, strengthen the style, or clarify what I said by fixing the syntax.

I defend this practice simply by pointing out that print journalism outlets employ proofreaders and editors to catch this kind of thing before it is distributed to the public. I have a staff of one, myself. I have gone to sleep many of night, a piece in the blog hopper, to wake up many hours later and find that I could have said something better. I go ahead and make the fix.

I generally stop making fixes after 24 to 48 hours.

I shall play fair with these fixes. I shall not alter the spirit of the piece or eliminate unfair personal attacks when I have fallen into them and been called on them by others. In this latter event, I shall strike out the offending section, own up to it, and issue a public apology if I think it is merited. It is my view that public character misjudgements deserve public retractions. I shall make these heedless of the cost it may entail to my reputation. I would rather go to sleep knowing that I have done my best to take responsibility for what I have done in my anger, fix it as far as is merited by the case, and apologized for exactly that which I have done wrong. As a corrollary, I shall not make apologies for accurate claims or statements about another person’s behavior.

Whether the apology is accepted or rejected stands as a mark on the attitude of the person receiving it. I will do my best to give good and honest apologies to those who deserve it, as I have done in the past.

This outburst occasioned by Jonathan Delacour’s statement of ethics.