One of the issues facing traditional media in the online-media age is not just losing their status as gatekeepers for their readers; it’s how to remain the gatekeepers for their own staff. In other words, when anyone can post anything online, immediately, in chatrooms, blogs, Facebook or Twitter, what limits do you put on your journalists? Should you put any at all? 

The WSJ parent Dow Jones evidently believes it should—and how. Editor and Publisher reprinted a memo to staff from WSJ management setting restrictions on their use of social-networking media like Facebook and Twitter. Some are simple common sense: e.g., Dow Jones staffers shouldn’t use false names when representing the company. But others call into question how well the company—which in many ways has used the Internet well, or at least smartly, business-wise—gets online media today.

I’ve been using Facebook and Twitter for a while now, for instance, and evidently much of what I do there—and here at my blog—would get my knuckles whacked at Dow Jones. For instance: