Blogging: where is "the line"?

This weekend I noticed an interesting news story on CBC television. In a nutshell, Stephane Dion’s wife wrote a note on her Facebook page criticizing Michael Ignatieff’s leadership skills; which consequently sparked A LOT of controversy. The question the newscasters were discussing was one I keep finding myself asking: how personal and truthful can your blog posts be without crossing the line? Especially when your blogs are somehow affiliated to a political party or business.

When reading up on blogging, over and over again I come across the same couple of suggestions: be meaningful, honest, and fresh. When your blog posts are directly associated to a business, however, these seemingly easy directions become less black and white. Yes, you use common sense and good judgement to filter out anything that would certainly spark too much controversy and get you in too much hot water; but you don’t want to cut out everything interesting and be left with a dull post with no intriguing insight – why would anybody want to read it?

For someone very new to the blogging world, I’m very wary of what I write. I know I should be 100% honest and just write down what I want to share, the minute it comes to me. But as with so many things in life,  it’s so much easier said than done.