I’m not sure there’s anything unethical about thinking better of a rash tweet and deleting it, but it seems wiser to me to think before you tweet.

I think it’s a bit different, though, if a journalist tweets news, realizes (through more information or reporting) the report was an error or premature and just deletes rather than telling followers, “Hey, last report was wrong; truth is …”

I think readers will trust journalists more who admit the incorrect information than those who pretend it didn’t exist. Transparency is best.

I liken it a bit to newspapers running corrections for errors rather than just updating the story and correcting it that way in the next edition. A correction is more clear, more honest and admits, “Hey, we goofed,” which I think people value.

I also think it’s similar to bloggers who report something, realize it’s a mistake and then edit their blog, but indicate on the blog that it’s an update or an edit. (Some people just change the post and don’t tell, but I think that’s less honest, too.)