LA Times' biz columnist did a "dumb thing"

The anonymous postings on blogs by Los Angeles Times business columnist Michael Hiltzik was called a “dumb thing to do” in the New York Times today by John Robinson, the editor of the Greensboro News & Record, whose paper is one of the leaders in using blogs to communicate with readers.

Hiltzik’s Golden State blog was suspended by the paper last week after it was discovered that he posted on his blog and others using two pseudonyms and not his real name.

The NY Times covered the story on Monday, and staff writer Katie Hafner wrote, “Mr. Hiltzik remains employed at the paper and is continuing to write his print column, which appears twice a week. The print column is overseen by an editor, but the Golden State blog was not.

“Mr. Hiltzik himself has written about the problematic nature of newspaper-sponsored blogs.

“‘Can a company that derives economic value from its reputation for literacy, judiciousness and taste comfortably lend its imprimatur to an unfiltered online diary?’ Mr. Hiltzik wrote in his print column and on the Golden State blog last October. ‘Blogs are by nature almost impossible to censor.'”

Apparently not.

Read the rest of the NY Times’ story here.