A lot of “civilians” don’t understand that on most weblogs and even major megaweblogs blogging involves a degree of trust. It’s assumed that when someone is considered OK they are given the codes to just put up their own posts. Most posts on most blogs are NOT reviewed before they go on by editors, who may have other roles in monitoring the quality control of a site, outreach, adding other features, and coordinating various kinds of coverage.
This means that once in a while there can be a glitch..and a post can get on a site that doesn’t merely go over the line but steps over into another galaxy and the Editors are aghast trying to figure out how someone could think it could go on that site. And then it must be pulled — as the Huffington Post recently did.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.