Ghost-written blogs: Everyone does it, but should they?

In New York City, there's a bit of a dust-up going on between mayoral candidates Freddy Ferrer and Michael Bloomberg.

It seems that the Ferrer campaign has acknowledged ghost-writing blog posts for Freddy - which is how an item went up that contained an obvious biographical falsehood. (The post claimed he attended public schools, when he really went to parochial schools.)

Now, the Ferrer campaign is accusing the Mayor of having the "Ask Mike" column on his site ghost-written.

Both sides claim that everyone does it:

"This happens in political campaigns all the time," [Ferrer spokeswomen Jen Bluestein] said. "In this case he called in some ideas, and someone got a little loose with the editing." ...

As for the authorship of "Ask Mike," Mr. [Stuart] Loeser replied about the mayor, "It's something he oversees and approves."

So, my question for P&T readers: Should ghost-writing in such a personal medium really happen? On the one hand, candidates are busy meeting voters and raising dollars. On the other, isn't blogging just another way to meet voters and raise dollars?

Kari Chisholm | September 28, 2005 | Comments (1) | TrackBack (21) Permalink: Ghost-written blogs: Everyone does it, but should they? Category: blogs, strategic issues

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