Edwards Debacle Illustrates a Big Blogosphere Problem

There are no easy answers to the issue that John Edwards faced last week when he was forced to fire two of his campaign bloggers due to comments they had made on their personal blogs that were sarcastic and disrespectful toward the Catholic Church’s stance on birth control and abortion.

One of the major fears that companies and other organizations have about getting involved with the blogosphere is the possibility of this kind of a blowup. Companies and political candidates alike have legitimate reason to fear credibility-damaging associations with incendiary bloggers.

That said, almost all bloggers have said something that pissed someone off at one point or another. Even Robert Scoble — who is a well-regarded paragon of business blogginess — has created scandal with his remarks.

Perhaps it’s time for companies and political candidates to distance themselves from actions and remarks, rather than the individuals who made them. I’ve always held that Al Gore would have won the 2000 presidential election had he opted to acknowledge Bill Clinton’s womanizing as an unfortunate personality flaw in an otherwise great man. Instead, Gore distanced himself from Clinton when he needed his charisma most. The rest is history.

Perhaps, Edwards would have been well-served by distancing himself from the specific statements, rather than firing the bloggers outright.

If I were advising Edwards, these are the talking points I would have advised him to use:

• We all work with and respect people whose views don’t always reflect our own. Even John Kerry — who, incidentally is Catholic — and I did not agree on every single policy point, and we ran for President together!
• I have asked the bloggers in question to correct all factual inaccuracies in their blog posts about Catholic theology.
• There is nobody in the liberal blogosphere whose views on all issues overlap exactly with my own. In the absence of such an intellectual doppleganger, I am reaching out to a broad base of bloggers whose audiences I hope to court as supporters. Some of these bloggers may articulate views that I disagree with or even deplore. Nevertheless, they are on the whole decent people who have the right to speak freely.

And of course, Scoble’s advice to “take the heat and overcommunicate,” would be wise to follow as well.