I don’t necessarily think I would call it that yet BUT there are some interesting questions coming up. I mentioned last week that John Edwards had hired two bloggers to staff his campaign blog. One of those bloggers, Amanda Marcotte, has been feeling some heat as others in the blogosphere sift through her personal site and pull up some interesting comments from the past.

As a blogger myself, who took down several older sites I wrote in my late teens/early twenties, I understand what it’s like to have your own words thrown back at you. Not in such a public way but the nature of blogging (writing quick rants and opinions) is bound to cause problems.

I also understand the precarious position you are in when you use this medium as a means of political argument and you trash someone. Then when you work in a job that pits you right in that persons office for one thing or another you have to sit there knowing your name is now signed in AND also attached to a bunch of blog posts trashing that person. Will they make the connection? Will they care? Chances are no, until your own name is public at which point someone is bound to start looking.

As more people blog the risk of being Dooced or simply of offending the people you love or work with rises. As bloggers are hired onto campaigns or corporations to do what they do best, the risk is pretty high that what made them credible to the public can now make them a liability.

imho, I believe it is the job of the campaign managers and the corporate managers to actually read the blogs of the people they hire (to blog and perhaps otherwise) just as they would vet their own candidate. Blogs are about immediacy, throwing your deepest thoughts out and not looking back. It makes for captivating reading but it also makes for potential problems, not just for the organization for the individual.