Learning blog lessons

It is taking me some time to understand both the power and limitations of blog journalism. The power is its incredible speed and reach -- within a few minutes of posting the story, the message is out.
The counter-force to this strength is that I can also quickly post material that is inaccurate, incomplete or in some cases totally unfair.
Yes, mistakes can be corrected equally rapidly, either subtly through editing revisions or radically through the simple process of hitting the "delete post' button -- something that certainly cannot be done in print (though I recall once making a mistake that resulted in the destruction of an entire press run of a magazine after it had been printed but before it was distributed; an expensive mistake indeed.)
But the damage through mistakes, like anything, just doesn't go away. The people and organizations affected by my writing have, reasonably, longer memories. Sometimes the damage cannot be repaired; in other cases, the rehabilitation effort will be long and challenging.
This is a reality in marketing. Negative comments and reactions carry much more weight in the word-of-mouth element than positive remarks; sloppy customer service and dishonorable business practices linger; and cost much more than the immediate errors. I am learning my lessons.