Well, I wrote a piece for my usual gig at the BBC America "Mind the Gap" web site, which I think I mentioned. It's a piece about American houses, written for Brits and explaining everything from air-conditioning to screen doors. Then the Daily Mail picked it up and according to my editor, it's going a bit bonkers out there on the Internet.
Unfortunately, I don't get paid any more, and the Daily Mail didn't even mention BBC America never mind link back to the original piece. A bit naughty in the blogging world, nest-ce pas? They didn't lift the whole piece, and added some of their own material, making for some vague inaccuracies.
First off, I'm not writing, nor have I ever written a "how-to guide" for British houseguests in the States. The amount of people who took umbrage because I "didn't mention it" has been quite surprising. I wasn't aware that I was supposed to tell my entire circle of friends and relatives of my every plan, wish or idiotic aspiration. Anyway, it was one post on the BBC America site.
Second, I didn't write the stuff in the boxes, nor a lot of what one commenter pompously referred to as "twaddle". Tee hee. And I didn't mention washer/dryer combos, which prompted one commenter to say "The author is mistaken about the US not having washer/dryer combos- we do." Oy.
It's one thing getting slagged off* for what I actually write, but quite another to be taken to task for stuff that I had nothing to do with. (Seriously - some of the comments quite take your breath away.)
Still - what do they say? Any publicity is good publicity. Hmmmmm...
* to slag off - British verb meaning to disparage someone either to their face or behind their back.