If you blog it…

The above raises questions about what it means to blog for The Times of Israel. A Jewish news Twitter account post a tweet that quickly spread across Twitter claiming that Varda Epstein’s highly questionable post claiming a vote for Obama is a vote for a second genocide of six million Jews was the official opinion of TOI. Then the Daily Beast ran with her story too, tying her to TOI as well.

So the question becomes, as the Fake Vos Iz Neias (“Fake” doesn’t mean satire, it’s just not authorized) tweeted, “If they publish it most readers look at it as it is Times Israel Views.”

I don’t totally agree, and believe most readers understand the difference between an Op-Ed, an editorial, a blog, etc. But the fact that TOI uses an army of volunteer bloggers, does almost nothing to edit their work and has no screening process before posts are made public, certainly raises questions.

Should TOI exercise more oversight of their bloggers, either for the quality of their writing or the opinions expressed, or is something gained by allowing 200 bloggers throwing sentences at the wall and letting the “featured blogs” section decide what sticks?