Gee - TechCrunch had a post today on When Everyone Is A Blogger, Nothing You Say Is Off The Record.
In a way, isn’t that what we’re moving to? With Google Search Wiki - I could pretty much comment on any url from any search result, and anyone else who wants to see my comments can.
Look, this story about a Belgian Diplomat and a New York Based blogger is pretty interesting in the level of “over reaction” that happened - here’s the story, according to TechCrunch:
Current Belgian Minister of Defense Pieter De Crem
apparently stumbled into a Belgian bar in New York City on Monday evening with his entourage.
Ha, ha, guess he was drunk, or something … anyway - here’s the rest of it….
Following his visit, bartender Nathalie Lubbe Bakker blogged
Clearly, one of the Diplomat’s advisers was out of line - and talked about a sensitive issue in a bar - which unfamiliar people.
He reportedly told her they had decided to come to NY anyway despite being aware of the cancellation because the policital situation here was ‘calm’ and that he’d ‘never visited the city anyway’.
A couple of days later, someone from De Crem’s office had a telephone call with Nathalie’s boss, after which she was promptly fired. This was initially denied by the politician, and it remains unclear if her termination was a direct result of the call or the blog post in question.
Somehow, the story was picked up
That’s how it is with Social Media happens - it’s the democratization of information - everyone can share - there is total transparency - and it can’t be controlled easily, if at all - but if people relax about it - it’s much easier to influence.
Yesterday, he made a statement to the Parliament admitting that a call was made but that there was never any insinuation about the girl getting fired from her job (which makes me wonder why the call was made at all then).
But then, the story unfolds some more and it ends us being blamed on the Blogger -according to what I just read in TechCrunch:
He also stated:
I want to take this opportunity and use this non-event to signal a dangerous phenomenon in our society. We live in a time where everybody is free to publish whatever he or she wants on blogs at will without taking any responsibility. This exceeds mud-slinging. Together with you, other Parliament members and the government I find that it’s nearly impossible to defend yourself against this. Everyone of you is a potential victim. I would like to ask you to take a moment and think about this.
De Crem added that he’s asked his legal counsel to see which measures could be taken to ‘defend his integrity’.
Needless to say, his statements indicating that ‘blogging is a dangerous phenomenon’ spurred a lot of angry (and funny
Let me just say this - is a blogger now sopposed to go out and get training on what he or she can or can’t say?
The TechCrunch Blogger Robin Wauters takes the point of view that it’s not Blogging that is a problem for the Belgian Diplomat, but that he comes from a culture and time that doesn’t know what to do with this kind of media - and treats it like a news story or news leak, when it’s sharing a personal experience in a blog.
People, and especially politicians representing them, need to wake up and smell the coffee. The world is changing, and blogging is now a big part of it, with all of its good sides as well as its bad ones. Live and learn. The sooner you get the hang of social media, the more you’ll see the opportunities in there rather than the threats.
To be totally honest, I would not be offended if there was some sort of Guidelines no so much what we can say, and what we can’t, but what information needs to be included. For example, would it have helped if Nathalie Lubbe Bakker pulled at a Flip Digital Camera and filmed the statements? Or would that be more damaging.
And if the Dimplomat’s party really felt pissed - maybe they should have been more open about it at home, instead of a Belgian bar in NYC - but that’s another story.
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