When\u00a0I\u00a0read\u00a0a blog I respect\u00a0and\u00a0I come across the\u00a0F word, or a derivation of the F word, I wince.<\/p>\n
It happened again yesterday when I was reading the blog of a colleague, another PR expert\u00a0who I like and respect and whose work I admire.\u00a0Was it my imagination, or is\u00a0this particular blogger\u00a0in love with the F word?<\/p>\n
Just for the heck of it,\u00a0I went to the blogger’s\u00a0search box\u00a0and typed in the F word to see what came up. The search delivered 19 posts,\u00a0some in which the word was used in a direct quote and others in which it wasn’t.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The F word and other obscenities\u00a0are popping up more and more in blogs that otherwise smart entrepreneurs\u00a0write to promote their businesses and attract\u00a0corporate clients.<\/p>\n
I’ll bet\u00a0many of these same bloggers\u00a0would never dream of using four-letter words\u00a0in the executive suite when they’re presenting a proposal or doing work for a client.\u00a0\u00a0Or during media interviews.<\/p>\n
Bloggers, it seems, are\u00a0creating a\u00a0double standard for obscenities.\u00a0It’s\u00a0OK to use the F word\u00a0in business blogs but not\u00a0in business conversations.<\/p>\n
Then there’s the whole blogging ethics<\/a>\u00a0debate.<\/p>\n What about bloggers like me who allow comments on their blogs but\u00a0have the ability to censor\u00a0or edit\u00a0the comments before they appear? Is it ethical\u00a0for a blogger to remove the F word from\u00a0an otherwise acceptable comment if they don’t want to offend their readers?<\/p>\n Good writing doesn’t rely on the F word.\u00a0It’s\u00a0one of those lazy words that sloppy writers, speakers and punks armed with cans of\u00a0spray paint\u00a0fall back on when they can’t think of a better word or phrase to explain their anger or frustration.\u00a0<\/p>\n The ubiquitous friggin’ and freakin’ aren’t much better.\u00a0<\/p>\n Do what you want in private.\u00a0But in the\u00a0business world, the F word is inappropriate,\u00a0unless you’re doing business\u00a0with\u00a0Tony Soprano<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When\u00a0I\u00a0read\u00a0a blog I respect\u00a0and\u00a0I come across the\u00a0F word, or a derivation of the F word, I wince. It happened again yesterday when I was reading the blog of a colleague, another PR expert\u00a0who I like and respect and whose work I admire.\u00a0Was it my imagination, or is\u00a0this particular blogger\u00a0in love with the F word? Just\u2026 Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","iawp_total_views":2,"wds_primary_category":606,"footnotes":""},"categories":[606],"tags":[608,518],"class_list":{"0":"post-552","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-public-relations","7":"tag-authors-publishers","8":"tag-public-speaking","9":"entry"},"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Joan Stewart","author_link":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/author\/jstewart\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40940,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552\/revisions\/40940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}