If you can't stand the heat, get out of the blogosphere

Ragan Editor David Murray sips his tea in a tempest for a print analysis of the two-way, sometimes circular, world of social media Late RR founder Larry Ragan used to quote P.T. Barnum to the effect: If you want to draw a crowd, start a fight. Larry was an intellectual and a civilized man, and so—with the exception of the time in the 1970s when he opined that all PR women sound alike on the telephone and received letters to the editor from two-thirds of the RR readership—the fights he started usually became fruitful debates. Larry was my mentor. Over a decade and a half of writing for Ragan publications, I've tried to spark lively conversations, too. And when I've done so, I've mostly enjoyed the fireworks. Recently, I started something that got a little out of hand, and made me wish, occasionally, that I had kept my big mouth shut. The episode was instructive to me and I hope, if I tell it candidly, it may be instructive to you.