Taxgirl Shares Nugget of Blogging Wisdom

Last week I blogged about “Taxgirl” Kelly Phillips Erb’s coverage of the Richard Hatch tax debt controversy.  It was my observation that she had changed something about the way she reported the story after speaking with Hatch directly about his situation.  Well Kelly was nice enough to provide me with a little clarification, part of which I have reproduced here:

“One of the reasons that I’ve blogged the story so many times is that I’ve been fascinated by the history. Like you, I practice tax law and I have been trying to get my head around why this case didn’t stop earlier. This wasn’t an ordinary story. In fact, that was the point of my original piece: the IRS doesn’t, as a rule, just toss folks in jail.

One of the cool things about blogging is that it’s not static. Providing regular content to an engaged audience allows you to update stories as they happen. And I’d like to think that’s what happened here. It wasn’t my intention to “backpedal” or paint Mr. Hatch as a victim with my follow-up piece. I don’t think I so much “changed my (sic) tune” as I found out more about the story and reported what I learned.”

She’s right.  I hadn’t thought of it that way.  It’s great that she was able to tell Hatch’s side of the story and add something that we probably wouldn’t get through standard news outlets.  I also support the notion that a good blog is often dynamic and engaging.  Thanks for the perspective Kelly!

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