Of blogs and councilmen

It's 9 a.m. three days before Christmas. I'm a journalist working feverishly on an early deadline. And my coffee is cold.


I think a little humor is good for a blog - a professional blog, not an anonymous personal blog. But how far is too far?

I have two blog thoughts I'm holding back on for the moment.

Following a recent city council meeting, I asked an incumbent if he was going to file for reelection. All other incumbents had filed and he had toyed with the idea of running for state rep. in the past. So really I was just fishing for the scoop.

When asked if he was going to file for reelection, he replied, "I'm not up yet. It's not my year."

I replied, "Yes it is. It was in the paper - twice."

"Hey, Mayor," he asked, "Who's up this year?"

"Well, it was Bill and Ted last time," (names changed to protect the innocent) the mayor replied, "So it's you and Jill."

"Oh," the councilman said. "I'll be in City Hall first thing in the morning to file."

I wouldn't go into that much detail for a blog on my newspaper's Web site, but I think it would be humorous to mention that he didn't realize he was up for reelection.

Would I be burning a bridge with a source? This is a pretty easy-going councilman and it looks like he may run unopposed. But would I have a headline in the paper soon 'Councilman forgets to file, launches write-in campaign' if I had not said anything?

Other thought on a blog: I've been toying with a blog that is a spoof on a Christmas song. The spoof could go two ways: poke fun with a reflection of the year or make it timeless to suit the city. Would the "funny" one make too many people mad?

Oh blog, how you vex me.