Should employers be allowed to police employee blogging?

There have been several stories in the news about bloggers getting fired or facing other reprimand from employers because of their blogging activity. The Delta stewardess that was fired for her blog has started a campaign to promote a bill of bloggers rights. People are asked to visit the site and sign on as supporting this effort, even if they want to sign anonomously.

The rights as stated are:

International Bloggers’ Bill of Rights.
posted 01/04/05 (edited Wednesday, Jan 12, 2005 15:52)
We, the inhabitants of the Blogosphere, do hereby proclaim that bloggers everywhere are entitled to the following basic rights:
FREEDOM TO BLOG. FREEDOM FROM PERSECUTION AND RETALIATION BECAUSE OF OUR BLOGS:
1.) If an employer wishes to discipline an employee because of his/her blog, it must first establish clear-cut blogging policies and distribute these to all of its employees.
2.) Blogging employees shall be given warning before being disciplined because of their blogs.
3.) NO ONE shall be fired because of his/her blog, unless the employer can prove that the blogger did intentional damage to said employer through the blog. Blogophobic companies, who violate the Bloggers’ Bill of Rights, will be blacklisted by millions of bloggers the world over.

Seems to me that most companies already have an arrangement setup with employees that basically says do anything that reflects badly on the company and you are likely to be disciplined. A company can fire an employee for the way they behave in other situations why not in how they behave in their blogs. You may not like this but this is really how the business world has worked for a very long time. It is very common for employees to sign an agreement with their employer that essentially takes away all of their constitutional rights in any way that could be connected, even remotely, to the employer.

Most neighborhoods with covenants do the same thing in the covenants, you sign and agree to give up your constitutional rights as well. Many people do not know this.