Joe the Plumber, Sarah Palin Between the Covers

Great article by The New York Times guest opinionator Timothy Evans who implores manglers of the English language like Joe the Plumber and former Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin to stop the madness and tear up those publishing contracts. Now the chances of them doing that are as likely as Palin not uttering a sentence like the following:

I had great faith that, you know, perhaps when that voter entered that voting booth and closed that curtain that what would kick in for them was, perhaps, a bold step that would have to be taken in casting a vote for us, but having to put a lot of faith in that commitment we tried to articulate that we were the true change agent that would progress this nation.

In case you had wondered, the transcription is no better than the aural interview, you still need a crypto guy and perhaps a firewire into her brain to decode. So it does cause pause to ask why would a publisher do this? Why indeed. The book will sell.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt recently announced that it was suspending acquisitions of new textbook manuscripts. And while the industry was aghast, it should look in its own mirror; the bestsellers have more to do with writers (or subjects) having a built-in audience than they do prosaic ability. In these tough times publishers want to know they have a hit -- and a loyal following is the first -- and perhaps only criteria.

What is a good writer to do? Well, all is not bad news. The Web has provided a democratic forum for we smiths of the word to hone our wares and develop our audiences. With social networking tools like blogs and Twitter we can create, market and build ourselves into a brand. And then again, we could always have a press conference, make outrageous claims and mangle the English language. Digg it?

Social Networks & Ethics

A friend of mine has this very bright and ambitious young man working for him, who creates a pseudonym for social networking sites to go "undercover" for his company -- engaging in conversations with people without them knowing his identity -- or phishing for information. My friend is mortified and asked me to provide some guidelines that he could post.

The principal guideline is simple: be honest and maintain integrity.

We started our blog Behind the Curtains four years ago, which was way ahead of the curve. We had one rule -- you had to be honest. The derivatives were: If we saw the post somewhere else first -- cite it -- and better yet, link to it. And if we had never sat on a certain designer couch before we couldn't claim its comfort. We could say i bet it is comfy -- or it looks like it would sit like a park bench, but we couldn't state it with authority. (The main site, Pure Contemporary, follows AP-style and avoids first-person claims altogether.)

My Dad used to say to me -- before you do something think, "would I do this if my parents were present?" The same should be used in blog posts, comments, community sites and others -- what would happen if my peers, colleagues or employer were to associate me with this comment? Will I or my company be irreparably harmed?

Whether it is social networking, being a journalist, maintaining a good relationship with customers, your credibility is all you have. Destroy it at your peril.