Will your blog get you fired? CNN thinks so!
Over the past few months, I’ve heard more and more stories about people either getting fired from their jobs or landing themselves in serious court cases because of their blogs.
I was over at Cos Media earlier when I came across another story about a blogger who was fired from CNN. I quickly clicked through to the bloggers website, where he details the whole story from start to finish – he writes incredibly well and is very accurate, so even though the article is long, it’s definitely worth the read!
A simple google search presents us with hundreds of results when we search for ‘blogger fired’. It was not long ago that I read an article about a gentleman who was murdered for posting something on his blog, unfortunately I cannot remember the link to the article, but there are plenty stories around the Internet about bloggers being murdered.
It seems as though what was once a fantastic medium for freedom of speech is now becoming a heavily monitored medium. Blogging has been around for many years, I started blogging in 1997 on a Wordpress type framework, which I coded myself for ease of posting. It’s only been in the last year or so that blogging has really exploded. Massive exposure is a fantastic thing, but not if it’s going to result in people being fired or murdered.
Christopher is the founder of iMod - Most of his time is spent building websites and pushing the limits with Search Engine Optimization. You can follow him on Twitter @ChristopherM
Chris M has written: 4145 posts.
Feb 20th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
There was also a girl in the magazine world about 2 years back, a beauty editor or something, who got fired for giving away industry scoops… but she had become so notorious she was offered an Mtv gig, which was then canned, but she also managed to get some publishing deals to get her dream of writing a book underway.
Another one I remember hearing about was a Chinese blogger girl who was forced to stop by the government… freedom of speech is a really touchy subject there, especially when you’re female!
That dude writes well by the way, sjoe.
Feb 20th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
It’s unfortunate that companies like CNN and others don’t recognise that people have a right to engage in communication, and that nowadays blogging is just another form of comms, especially for gifted writers like Chez. That said, I think Chez (and many others) often realise that incidents like these lead to new opportunities. Let’s hope he goes for them!
The question remains; when will companies realise that hanging on to control – of their company, their customers and/or employees – is just not the answer?
Feb 20th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
It’s a great pity yes :( I hope he manages to find a new job, which I’m sure he will, where he can have the freedom to blog how ever he likes!
I agree, companies need to give their employees some freedom, because at the end of the day, it’s the employees that are in control!
Thanks for popping past Gino!