Dana Blankenhorn graciously apologizes for his piece saying that Evan should resign from blogger. Well done Dana.
# You can’t erase it. Once it’s published, the RSS feed goes out. Remember Ollie North’s Clue from 20 years ago — hitting delete doesn’t mean it’s deleted. Make your corrections on the item itself, at the top.
– What’s your hurry? Unless you’re competing with CNN, get it right first. This is especially true when your value-add is analysis.
– It’s a wide wonderful Web out there. Use it. Check your facts and insert the links into the piece.
– Check the dates on the facts you check. There are still many pages out there identifying Evan Williams as being head of Blogger. This doesn’t make them right now, even if they were right at the time.
– You can lose years worth of credibility on one moment of stupidity. That’s not fair, but those are the facts. Everyone who likes you will tell one friend. Everyone who hates you will tell 10.
– Be especially careful when going outside your comfort zone, the beat you actually cover. Double-check everything, and try to get a source. E-mail is easy. The phones still work.
– Assume everything you write will be read by someone who neither likes you nor trusts you, and act accordingly.