WAS AIRLINE RIGHT TO LAUNCH ATTACK ON 'IDIOT' BLOGGER?

Irish blogger Jason Doyle could never have predicted his short post seven days ago about a technical glitch on an airline's website would result in media coverage around the world including CNN, The Economist, The Daily Telegraph and The Times.

His post highlighted a programming error on the website of low cost carrier Ryanair where he claimed it was potentially possible to bypass payment of credit card fees. As a freelance web developer he probably felt entitled to comment on his discovery.

Now he's probably wishing he hadn't bothered.

Within hours comments were left purporting to be from Ryanair staff saying: "You're an idiot and a liar!!" Other comments, also claiming to be from the company's staff, said: "… don't post bollocks" and suggested the author has a "pathetic life". Those comments were subsequently traced back to IP addresses belonging to the company.

Interestingly those posters also admit what Jason discovered was known to them, but denied it would have enabled him to obtain free flights or bypass charges.

The airline's official response to what happened reads: "Ryanair can confirm that a Ryanair staff member did engage in a blog discussion. It is Ryanair policy not to waste time and energy corresponding with idiot bloggers and Ryanair can confirm that it won't be happening again. Lunatic bloggers can have the blog sphere all to themselves as our people are far too busy driving down the cost of air travel."

And here lies a big difference between the traditional media and blogs. A newspaper or magazine would not have published such a story without comment from the airline.

I am not justifying Ryanair's response in any way. From a PR perspective this has to be a disaster, and it shows how little they value the opinions of bloggers - their customers.

Should Jason had contacted Ryanair prior to publishing, as he would have been obliged to do if he were a professional journalist? Arguably, yes, but Ryanair were subsequently given the opportunity to respond in both the comments section and again in an official company statement.

I've personally responded to blogs and comments where my publications or company have been discussed, and comments made that purport to be fact but that are incorrect. One was (not too politely) questioning the quality of the translations in my magazine. I replied, saying that I take great pride in the work we produce and would investigate any evidence that was presented of specific examples of incorrect translations. None was ever forthcoming.

The fact is that even when given the chance, the vast majority of companies wouldn't even bother giving official comment to a blogger. I know that all too well from my own experiences in recent months, but at least I have given them an opportunity.

There are stories I'm working on now that have to be 100 per cent correct or they will create a risk of causing problems to those concerned. Here's an example. I've noticed at least five high profile magazines in Thailand that have not appeared in January. The chances are they have stopped publishing, but if it's just a distribution issue or even a sell-out then my saying they have stopped in a blog post will cause damage to their brand.

In this example I have to be totally correct with what I post, but so far just one of the magazines concerned has bothered to reply to my emails. I don’t think this is a Thai issue; I think it's the same in many parts of the world.

And I don't think any blogger would publish something they know to be incorrect, but what happens when that post is factually wrong? Is the offended party entitled to defend themselves, and how far should they go?

Ryanair created the proverbial mountain from Jason's original molehill of a post. A short "Thanks for pointing this out, we'll get on to fixing it now" would have stopped the subsequent frenzy before it had even began. Now they seem intent on labeling all bloggers as "lunatics" and "idiots".

Do you think bloggers should give companies the opportunity to respond before publishing? Was Ryanair’s staff right to defend their company in the comments section of the blog? Is Ryanair’s official response typical of how most companies view bloggers? Have your say now.