Bloggers Under Fire

Well, the title was catchy...

I have been following the thread on the Jacksonfile about DMH, and have been finding it fun to read. As a fellow blogger, I know that some of the claims made by others are opinion, some are fact, and others are just plain hooey. And alas, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish. What I do know is that most people are not going to blatantly lie on a blog, at least I would hope they would not. The bloggers themselves don't sell anything; they don't get "ratings." The posters, esp. if anonymous also do not get such recognition. Therefore I find the comments made this morning by Brian Byers somewhat confusing. I think most of us who blog (either run the blog or comment on it) know that what we read/write is mostly opinion, but may have some fact intermixed therein. I would agree that launching anything based on what's written in a blog would be irresponsible, but investigating in general must also be considered as a possibility. I don't think that that many people would make up or exaggerate a story to that degree and have the whole thing be just a fable.

The bottom line is that, when something like this comes out, maybe, just maybe, there might be some truth. In a smaller town like Decatur, since there might be some truth, therefore, maybe, just maybe, some sort of preliminary investigation could be started to look into the validity of the claims made. Police do it all the time. They get a tip, weigh it's believability, and then decide on whether to act on it or not. When the tips start coming in from multiple sources, or continuously, maybe, just maybe they may decide to look into the tip when perhaps before they had decided not to.

This is just my opinion, yes, but I thought I would put it out...

Until next time...