Gyford: How BB should change

By Cory Doctorow at 11:19 am Sunday, Apr 3

My friend Phil Gyford has written an essay for his blog on what he sees as the style changes necessary for Boing Boing's future as a commercial venture. I don't agree with everything he's written, but I don't disagree with it all either, and I'll certainly take it to heart:

The second example is Boing Boing's post about a high-school principal who "banned blogging" because it "isn't educational". Part of the blame lies with the source story at the Rutland Herald whose over-eager sub-editors misleadingly headlined the story "High school bans blogging". In fact the school banned a single website and the principal simply issued a sensible warning about children weblogging -- as with any activity online, kids should be careful with the information they make public.

But Boing Boing got carried away with the newspaper's headline, repeating it in theirs even though a cursory read of the newspaper article reveals that no one "banned blogging". The newspaper claims the principal doesn't think blogging is educational, and Cory could certainly have criticised him for this alone, although it would make for a less dramatic post. The repetition of the lie about the principal banning blogging, rather than his apparent opinion, is possibly also what prompted a reader to suggest people should email the principal to complain.

Link