DISQUS

Duncan: don't get your media news/opinions from Ernie Sigley's afternoon tripe - wouldn't even place him in the top 1000 for any serious media debate.

I think they can see it coming but they'll get dragged into it kicking and screaming and throwing hissy fits. :-)

It's sad that they're ruining a good reputation (as a band, their music) by continually fluffing how they go about life on the Internet

They should take a look at bands like Motley Crue and see how they've embraced today's media.

Nice podcasts guys - you went through a lot of topics. You two sound like a natural pairing, should do more podcasts together.

And the intro and exit music: cool !

Hey it's not as bad as it seems. I'm a fully trained journalist. You go through the ladder starting at the bottom but I can tell you it's an experience. It's a lifestyle.

Yes the foodchain can be gruesome at times. Lots of egos invovled, especially in a big paper. But if you love getting into the nitty gritty of research like I do then you'll love it.

But then again, why bother. I got out because of the games and politics of it all and headed to blogging and my own business - and I'm never going back. :-)

Blogging is the new journalism in many respects and I can satisify my journo's desires by doing what I want - the audience will judge if I'm above board.

Lets wait and see how the guys deal with it. From my background such an assignment I would take 2-3 weeks of solid full time research before I even ventured there. I'd do the basic google thing and get in touch with who's there on the ground and make contacts. I'd set up interviews and make appointments with officials. I'd do more background work than anything that would appear in the presses (or on my blog).

But that's just me.

Let's give these guys a shot at it and hope that the rubbish over the last few days has been put to rest.

Aaron, don't be modest, mate. I actually showed this post to a few seasoned journalist buddies of mine and they were mightly impressed by the way you put forth your arguements - of course, we were drinking at the time. :-)

Many laughed, because they get these memo's such as yours when they are being sent on assignment from their editors. They kept asking me : "Is this guy an editor, a former investigative reporter ... because he sure thinks like one."

If I were the guys going out to N.O I'd print this post out as a guide on what to do, where to look, what to ask ... and more importantly rid myself of any preconceived ideas.

I really hope they do a good job and cover it from all sides. Lots of credibility is at stake.

Aaron ... this is by far the best post I've read on this issue.

I've leanred more from this post than from the more than 50+ I've read so far - from both sides.

You sure you're not a joournalist? :-)

Aaraon,

Being 99.99% sure I know who you're talking about ;-) Sean's comments hit the mark:

"how tough is it to publish a blog? Nobody checks up on you or your identity, credentials, and background"

Any crackpot can start up a blog and fool us all for a while.

I guess that's the good and bad of blogging. It makes it fun, free and open. Each individual has to find out for themselves who is credible and who is not.

Talk about putting all your eggs in the one basket. My 300+ rss feeds are all in NG and it's been down for more than 5 hours now.

Now way it was planned. I was using it when it started acting up. It crashed big time.

Aaron,

You say "not throwing up PR bullshit" - the comment that Peter has placed here is pure PR - it's the exact same comment (word for word) at all the relevant blogs he's placed it on.

I don't really think the issue is about plagiarizing stories - it's more the fact that they cropped an image and removed a watermark. It's pretty clear cut.

I guess all blogs take images here and there but the issue here is that this particular image had a watermark and that watermark was a link. A simple email would have sorted it out as 99% of publishers who'd take that image that had such a watermark would naturally assume it belonged to whomever watermarked it.

I'm hoping it's more laziness on their part rather than anything underhand.

Great plugin,

Have you gotten around to fixing the Syndication / Full Text problem? I don't want my rss feed to be full text, only excerpts (90% + of feeds I encounter are excerpts only).