The Cincinnati Enquirer Web page carries a blog titled "Grandma in Iraq," written by a Public Affairs Officer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Unfortunately, that fact wasn’t initially given up-front, which led to some readers criticizing the newspaper for its lack of transparency. From the Editor and Publisher:
(Assistant managing editor/online Chris) Graves said some readers began to complain this week
about the lack of disclosure. Meanwhile, an item on the
www.tpmmuckraker.com Web site posed the question, "Should a news
organization have a military flack writing for it at all? If so,
shouldn’t she be explicitly identified as a public affairs officer?"
Graves agreed, and changed the description of Fournier
that appears atop the opening page. It now reads, "Suzanne Fournier of
Alexandria, grandmother of 15, posts from Iraq. Fournier is the Public
Affairs Officer for the Gulf Region Southern District, U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers, Iraq."
I think some might underestimate how important transparency is when writing a blog. (I learned that lesson a bit, myself, not long ago.) This is just the latest example of people demanding full disclosure when it wasn’t given.
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