In journalism’s efforts to embrace new media and transform the newspaper business, a lot of papers have adopted the idea of inviting readers to blog on the paper’s site. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer was one of the first newspapers to go down this road, with readers writing about a variety of topics relevant to Seattle residents, like transit, trade, and music.

It’s not a bad idea. God knows, newspapers need to do something to be relevant in this dramatically altered media environment. In a recent Editor & Publisher column, Steve Outing highlights the challenge—although reader blogs aren’t among the solutions listed. Still, local, relevant content from the viewpoint of readers can be a powerful inducement for residents to visit a newspaper’s site. And most newspapers are clear that the authors of these blogs are speaking for themselves and are not edited by the paper. The Post-Intelligencer precedes every blog with a disclaimer:

P-I Reader Blogs are not written or edited by the P-I. They are written by readers, for readers. The authors are solely responsible for content. If you see any posts you consider inappropriate, please send us a note.

The P-I also qualifies its bloggers before inviting them to publish their views under the newspaper’s banner. That’s also a good idea. There’s a certain amount of risk involved in letting readers express themselves as what many may view as a representative, a new-fangled member of the paper’s reporting staff.

This is a lesson the Los Angeles Times may or may not be learning after one of its bloggers posted an item to her environment-focused blog titled, “Greenest crotch in the blogosphere.” The post—by a blogger named Siel who also writes the green LA girl blog and is a BlogHer contributing editor—talks about a friend whose mid-region appears in an ad on the popular Treehugger blog. Here’s a sample:

Did Treehugger ask if they could use the image of Summer’s crotch? No. Did Summer complain? No—partly because the whole thing is so damn funny. Our friend Traci recognized Summer’s crotch at first glance, for ex. We joked about how Summer should get a big ?? tattooed on her crotch, sort of like those watermarks that stock photo companies use.

Integral to the notion of blogging is freedom for people to say what they want, which is part of the dilemma newspapers face when taking this approach to integrating social media. Should newspapers review what bloggers post? Edit headlines? Probably not. On the other hand, bloggers writing for newspapers can have their own blogs (as Siel does); newspapers might consider a set of guidelines to ensure posts don’t sully the newspaper’s reputation or integrity.

Siel’s post hasn’t exactly produced a firestorm of controversy. I found one post about it on LAObserved, but it’s snidely critical. The only comment to the post reads, “I think you’ve just set the low bar for L.A. Times headlines with “Greenest Crotch in the Blogosphere.” No where to go from there but up.”

And I learned about the post in a mass email sent by a friend who produces a political website; his note reads, “This is what the L.A. Times has come to: appropriating bloggers to gain ‘cool’ cache. Read and be amazed.”

I did. I was.