Sunday, April 06, 2008

Not so fast ...

... In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop.

This link has been sent to me by a number of my correspondents, so it's obviously an eye-catcher. Unfortunately, it's also a good example of why reporters should think before they write. Of course, this managed to make it into print, so more than just the reporter is at fault. What exactly do we have here? Two people who blogged died of heart attacks. And a person who blogged had a heart attack. How many bloggers are there? In excess of 100 million, I believe. Three out of 100 million hardly seems a representative sample. Or, as the reporter helpfully reminds us, "there is no official diagnosis of death by blogging, and the premature demise of two people obviously does not qualify as an epidemic. There is also no certainty that the stress of the work contributed to their deaths."
So what's the point of the story then?

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:53 PM

    Well, at least we can be grateful that the "bloggers might be journalists too" stories have been replaced by the "blogging is hard work" articles. At this rate, perhaps we'll get a serious consideration of blogging sometime in 2011!

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  2. Anonymous8:36 AM

    The point is there is no point, I think . . . When I saw it (and the pics accompanying it), I had to look up, way up, and ensure I wasn't somehow caught in a Twi-Zone Spike to The National Sinquirer; and, you know, I kept hoping, well, maybe there's gonna be a punch-out line, something along the lines of YHBT . . .

    Nope. No such hope for this dope.

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