Editorial Responsibility To Our Readers?

Ed Morrissey over at Captain's Quarters has posted a real doozey of a question. The question is: "What is the responsibility of a blog author to write a balanced blog covering both sides of an issue, or even passing on an issue after a few posts." That's not quite how he put it, but that is the gist of the controversy. Captain Ed received an e-mail from a long time reader that contained the following:

"Please, step back from where you are and really assess whether you like where your blog has headed. As for me, if your type of writing doesn't change, I will remove your website from my bookmarks and just stop reading you. That would be a shame."

"Let's not debate the Schiavo case specifically here -- we have plenty of that going on in the posts I've written on the case already. I'd like feedback from CQ readers about what you see as my responsibility to you, and the limits of editorial control. I'm not going to comment on it myself until I read your feedback in the comments section.

For the record, my editorial policy is fair game for criticism, as far as I'm concerned."

I won't presume to answer for the good Captain, he is handling it in his own way. But I do have some thoughts about it. I write this blog primarily for me to express my views. I pay the freight, I take the time to learn the skills to be able to publish on a blog, I write about what interests me.

The author of the e-mail "threatens" to abandon the Captain if the Captain doesn't change his writing style, but means if the Captain doesn't stop writing about things the Captain writes about, he is going to take his ball and go home. That is his choice obviously, but what a loss.

The Anchoress (here) offers her views noting that Captain Ed

"Captain Ed is an incredible gentleman, and so he is actually taking this reader seriously, and he is asking his readers to comment on his editorial decisions.

So here is mine: Captain, it's YOUR freaking blog - we who read you just come along for the ride. If something that interests you doesn't interest me (a rare event) I simply keep scrolling. YOU decide what you will write about. My experience, in reading you for over a year, is that you routinely find the most compelling and urgent stories (often before anyone else) and then you write about them, and you deliver to us well-reasoned prose with a chewy moral center. In otherwords, you give us something to THINK about.

I've been removed from a few blogrolls because of my writing about Terri Schiavo and people who think I'm preaching too much. You know what my feeling is? There's a million blogs out there, baby, if mine doesn't suit, then farewell and Godspeed! I take my readers very seriously, but the blog is mine, and I'll write what matters to ME."

Reading blogs is one of the things I really enjoy, both the depth and the bredth of opinion. One of my favorite blogs is Marc Coopers blog and I read it daily. I seldom agree with what Marc says, but I enjoy the banter of the commenters and I enjoy the class with which Marc posts about his issues and his interests (most of the time that is). If you read our respective posts on Terri Schiavo (Marc here, me here, here and here) you will see that we couldn't be farther apart if we were at polar extremes, but so what? Marc has a right to be wrong.

I read a number of decidely "leftist" and liberal blogs for the same reason. Do I subscribe to their thoughts and ideas? In a word, "NO!"

I have only about an average 50+ visits a day at my blog, and I would like to think that the 85 or so page views they pull up are interesting to the reader. But I don't write for them, though I'm glad that they read. I write about what I'm thinking, what I find funny, what I find sad or whatever. I am grateful for every one of my readers. Left, right and center, but I change nothing because they want me to, I write for me and the day I don't find it fun, interesting or challenging, I'll stop. Not one day before.

UPDATE: Comments from Miguel A. Buitrago are in the comments section. Miguel writes MABB a blog from Bolivia. His writing is excellent, his POV explains much of what goes on in that high altitude country. Welcome Miguel by visiting his blog here