If you’ve been obsessed with the Tour de France and haven’t been checking any other media outlets this week (raises hand), you may have missed the Internet scandal/dust-up/spat of the week between Michael Arrington at TechCrunch and the boys at Twitter. It’s been blogged to death, so I’ll keep this one short.
The :20 second summary is that a hacker got access to Twitter’s corporate Google accounts, got hold of a bunch of confidential documents about Twitter’s strategic plan and financials, e-mailed them to TechCrunch, and Arrington published (some of) them. Ev, Jack and Biz at Twitter cried foul and are getting lawyers involved. Many people have denounced Arrington’s decision as unethical. He’s keeping some of the documents suppressed (for now) at Twitter’s request.
Guy Kawasaki (seriously, this is the most name-dropping post I’ve ever written) slapped up a copy of the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics up on his Posterous page last night, circling the following tenet:
Journalists should avoid undercover or other surreptitious methods of gathering information except when traditional open methods will not yield information vital to the public. Use of such methods should be explained as part of the story
But, let’s all remember that bloggers, like Arrington, aren’t journalists. They don’t operate under a professional code of ethics. they don’t report to an editor or publisher who tells them what to write about or what they can or can’t reveal. Many of them are ethical, many of them are former journalists, many of them would have chosen not to publish the documents.
Credibility is what’s keeping traditional media alive. Readers respect and trust publications and news outlets that do operate under a code of ethics like SPJ’s. This may be a short-term win for Arrington, but over time stunts like this are going to erode (what’s left of) reader’s respect for TechCrunch.
From the standpoint of a PR professional or a corporate communicator, we can’t forget that bloggers operate under their own rules. They aren’t necessarily motivated by the truth or by serving the public or by being objective.
We can’t count on them doing the right thing.
Image via Flickr user KayVee.INC
Writing as someone who’s found himself straddling that “journalist/blogger” divide, I’d argue that the boundary between one and the other is vanishing. That could be a good thing, ultimately, because both blogger-journalists and their audiences want reporting to be credible and ethical. Leastways I hope so.
Arrington also had a fallout with Leo Laporte over Leo’s ethics on reporting on the Palm Pre. Leo got a demo model to review and Arrington called him out saying he was biased in what his review would be because he got a demo model. Laporte has been in the business for 30 years and has some of the highest ethics in the business. Over on Friendfeed, there was a huge backlash against Arrington.
If he keeps this up, he will cross the line one to many times and be banished to the back waters of the internet, because any credibility he had will be gone.
I’m glad you posted this as it’s something that has been on my mind lately as well.
One of my fascinations with journalism and what motivates me to do my job is the ethics that traditional journalists follow to put together news.
It’s true, many bloggers don’t follow a set of rules – which enables speed in reporting among other things. But it can leave us at the mercy of what is factual due to a lack of due diligence.
I think we will see an evolution as mistakes are made and eventually bloggers (you and me included) will start policing ourselves.
Credibility! I’m glad you mentioned it. As the journalist/blogger line continues to blur, it’s important to remember that there are NO rules for blogging. It’s one of the factors that draws so many people into the medium – no one dictates what they can and can’t discuss.
That being said, there are lines people shouldn’t cross. What Arrington did was unethical – the overwhelming response criticizing him demonstrates that. I believe, like Rachel, that bloggers will start policing themselves out of necessity. Otherwise, they will lose readers because of credibility and ethics.
Amen, Amy!
Myself, I don’t confuse Bloggers who pass themselves off as being, well, “journalistic” I’ll usually trust a trained journalist over a non-journalist on just about any topic until facts prove otherwise.
Arrington is unethical. And he’s unethical because traffic and page views have become more important to him than the nature of his work. But he’d be the same unethical jerk if he was publishing on a blog or somewhere else.
Before we get into the debate about how worthless bloggers are, perhaps its time we make it official. Blogging isn’t going anywhere. And those that choose to make a living off the medium, as professionals, should be forced to hold themselves to the same standards as other “journalists”. The medium isn’t what defines you or what makes you a blogger or a prized “journalist” – it’s your responsibility to the subject and the people you’re writing for.
People like Arrington should have to adhere to the same kind of code print journalists do. Because when he writes for TechCrunch, he’s wearing that hat. If it’s enforceable offline, it should be enforceable online.
Thanks for the comments, everyone. I think there are many bloggers who do adhere to the ethical guidelines that most journalists subscribe to, and we seem to agree that Arrington isn’t one of them.
I love Lisa’s suggestion that professional bloggers should have a responsibility to their readers and should have to be held to the same standards as journalists. Unfortunately, I don’t think we’re there yet and so PR practitioners and communicators still need to be careful. Furthermore, there are hoards of bloggers who don’t make any income from blogging (unlike Arrington) and so these bloggers are even less bound to any sort of ethical or professional code.
I don’t in any way think that bloggers are “worthless” but I do think that, just as bloggers operate differently than journalists (for now), PR pros need to remember to approach and handle them differently than they would a journalist, too.
As much as bloggers aren’t journalists. I would not want something reported on something stolen. I am still for credibility and sources when the subject can arise.
I am a huge fan of the journalistic process but I do have a blog.
Ethics and Credibility are at fault plus your reputation is at stake. If you keep having fall outs with different organizations then no one is going to believe you or want to do business with you.
If the old adage is true people do business with who they know, like and trust. No one will wind up trusting him and no one will do business with him and then there won’t be anything to write about anymore.
This might be the only thing that can stop him if there aren’t any ethics being involved with his blog.
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That’s a good point. I agree that bloggers are very different from journalists and, as it seems, a bit more complicated. It was surprising to see people miffed about what Arrington did. It makes me wonder if they’ve ever read anything from him before. I think what he did was wrong, but I certainly wasn’t surprised. Nice post!