The Following Post Contains Content Taken From Various Experiences In My Life; Any Resemblance To Someone Else's Life Is Purely Coincidental

Recently Brian over at Iowa Voice got in some trouble for not attributing a quote in his usual text box to differentiate it from his own thoughts. The subject matter of his post concerned Wal-Mart. Eventually someone at the New York Times got a hold of the post and did a news article about bloggers attributing press releases or reader emails as their own words. I really don't care whether Brian is guilty or not of this practice. I have read Brian's defense and concluded he was probably just sloppy.

However, what stuck with me after reading about this entire affair was the impact just one blog can have on perception. With In A Word I have always pretty much taken the satirical approach to most subjects I have covered. If you, the reader, can't figure out when I am screwing around and being serious then you need to get your news somewhere else.

Blogs have definitely blurred the line between news and opinion. When I read a blog I am expecting to get skewed version of the facts. I don't go to Protein Wisdom for the bare bones truth. I want Jeff to give me his humorous interpretation of the story. Blogs are a more intimate approach to covering the world around us, but they also require greater involvement by the reader.

Traditional news sources tell you they researched a topic and you have to take their word for it. With a blog you can actually provide a link to your source and let your readers make their own conclusions. This is where I believe, as bloggers, we need a certain code of conduct. I certainly don't get anywhere near the amount of traffic that Brian gets at Iowa Voice, but it did make me stop and evaluate how present information to my readers.

Unfortunately, there is no way to monitor a blog's content, nor I guess should there be. However, it would be nice to see blogs police themselves and realize once they start getting a specific amount of traffic, they have a responsibility to present and attribute all facts that aren't their's alone. As a whole, Iowa Voice does a great job of that, I just wonder about the rest of us...