Journalism at its Finest

By: Lowell
Published On: 7/11/2007 8:19:36 AM

The DC Examiner reports today that "Virginia GOP lawmaker Tom Davis purchased three Web site domains last year in preparation for a U.S. Senate campaign."  That's true, but the paper fails to note until paragraph #5 that the news on Davis' domain names was first "reported on several Virginia political blogs."  Actually, that's not even accurate, as it was only ONE blog, Virginia Progressive, that broke the story, not "several Virginia political blogs."  What. Ever.

Note to journalists: here on the blogs, the custom is to cite (and link to) the media source in the first paragraph, or even the first line, of our articles.  Our custom also is to note the ACTUAL source of a scoop, not just refer vaguely to "several newspapers."  Time to review those dusty J-School books?

Comments



Perhaps not a custom (Silence Dogood - 7/11/2007 9:44:39 AM)
I can think of several times when I've seen blogs not remember to cite the original source of a story and just pull quotes from it, so it might not be a custom for all blogs.  I'm very glad it's a custom for you, though, Lowell. :-)


Clarification? (Dave Hendrickson - 7/13/2007 12:28:10 PM)
I guess I need a clarification on this "custom." In this post, it is very clearly followed -- the Examiner is quoted, named and linked to in the first paragraph.

But in today's post "Virginia Republicans' Latest Lame Excuses" -- which is based on a Washington Post story -- the Post is not cited and the link is "parade of lame excuses" instead of the newspaper's name or the author's.

The two don't seem consistent to me.

Thanks.



In today's "Virginia Republicans' Latest..." diary (Lowell - 7/13/2007 1:09:28 PM)
the Washington Post is hotlinked in words #4-#7 of the diary. I've also added another link in sentence #2 just to make it clear beyond a shadow of a doubt what the source is.