Friday, October 03, 2003 7:23 PM
Speaking of blog legalities and liabilities, I wonder how Senator Kit Bond will treat potential weblog use among his staff from this day forward?
CNN reports today that "Missouri Republican Sen. Kit Bond on Thursday fired his communications director for running a political Web site named for the tail number of a plane that crashed in 2000, killing the state's Democratic governor. " Full article
While the site has been removed, Google Caching keeps it available for the time being (click here) [update, 10/14/03: site is no longer available via Google]. Guess what? The "website" in question is, like thousands of other weblogs, really just a simple blog using a generic Blogger template and hosted at Blogspot.
In his own words, the blog authors notes "This site chronicles whether Missouri will remain a so-called political swing-state through the 2004 elections. Missouri Republicans are on the march here. Not clear whether this is a freak occurence or the start of something more permanent. Animal entrails, political tea-leaves and the detritus of daily news clips will be scoured to divine the pace and direction in the power shift now underway. The title of this blog is not random. It marks an inflection point in current Missouri politics. On that day, the worm began to turn. "
Any fallout coming for Senator Bond? Let's face it; weblogs are easy. Even novice technology users can use a weblog service to start posting commentary to the web in minutes. The potential legalities and liabilities of weblogs are clearly worth considering.