Reason 5 to Ignore Blogs (Series)

5. Ignoring blogs can't hurt you.

CBS news and Dan Rather thought they could ignore blogs. Back in September of 2004, Dan Rather went on live TV and said he backed his story about President Bush. And if anyone doubted him, too bad. That kind of thinking cost him his career and put egg on the face of CBS execs. How? From bloggers "Rathergate" was born.
Click here to see the full story http://www.rathergate.com/?m=200409

The "Rathergate" scandal involving Dan Rather of CBS news where memos were used on the show 60 Minutes about President Bush. Within 72 hours bloggers had built a case that the memos were forgeries. The force of the group made CBS address the situation and make an apology for their bad reporting. This is viewed as the final acceptance of blogging by the mass media as a news source onto itself. It showed how blogs could keep the pressure on established news sources.

Then there was the Kryptonite 2000 bike lock. After just ten days of bloggers Internet chatter the $25 million dollar company posted losses of $10 million dollars when they were forced by bloggers to do a free product exchange.
For more details of the story and to see the video that started the downfall, click here http://www.engadget.com/entry/7796925370303347/

Want to see what the blogosphere is saying about you? Check out these sources (I guarantee your company is listed, email me if you need help finding where):
http://www.technorati.com/
http://www.blogpulse.com/
http://buzz.yahoo.com/
http://www.feedster.com/
http://www.pubsub.com/

You know what they say, "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em".