The dangers of blogging?

We live in conservative times - as opposed to interesting ones I suppose...I'm not sure if readers will be able to get to the link so I quote in full from the Sydney Morning Herald [16/8/2005]:

Blogging's immediate impact doesn't add up for Deloitte
By Rob O'Neill
August 16, 2005

Big four accounting firm Deloitte has put corporate blogging on the back-burner following robust internal discussions about the company's online strategies.

A proposal to start corporate blogging on leadership issues was put forward by the firm's director of digital marketing and communications, Ryf Quail. But senior partners were concerned about legally protecting the firm, which is bound by a partnership structure.

Mr Quail says he started the debate to stimulate discussion about Deloitte's online future. Mr Quail, who came out of Deloitte's web development arm, Eclipse, says that with people such as Rupert Murdoch talking about blogs, he decided to formulate a plan to spruik Deloitte's message.

"The big technology companies were using them but there was not a lot of activity in the consultancy space," Mr Quail says.

He describes himself as an "extreme outlier" in favour of blogging at Deloitte.

He made his proposal and the rest of the firm then became involved in the discussion.

Chief marketing officer David Redhill says he recognised the tension between a professional services firm pushing the boundaries and the huge responsibility the firm has to be discreet about its clients.

As the debate escalated, he says he and others became concerned the firm could be opening a can without knowing "what was at the bottom of it".

He was aware of blogs getting people in professional positions into a lot of trouble. "Our holding pattern should be risk-averse and watching how it develops," Mr Redhill says.

The concern is that once a post is made to a blog, it is there forever.

Mr Quail says blogs have to be immediate. If the content had to go through a risk assessment system, immediacy would be lost, with content being posted weeks after it was written.

"In a corporate sense, the more racy and immediate a blog, the less you can allow it to speak for your corporation," Mr Redhill says. "There's a lot of potential power, but risk-managing a blog seems to me to be a contradiction in terms."

Partnerships are subject to many regulatory regimes. Individual views cannot hold sway over corporate policy.

"I don't want one partner speaking on behalf of a firm I'm part-owner of," Mr Redhill says.

There are a lot of specialisations within such a firm and public commentary should be left to those with that expertise, he says.