Northwestern Credits Blog

On April 20th this blog reported on citizen Russ Meerdink's discovery that the EAA has not been paying for traffic services provided by the Winnebago County Sheriff's Department and that Sheriff Brooks will begin billing this year.

Northwestern reporter Crystal Lindell called me yesterday, looking for my opinion on the matter. I said that my opinion was stated on my blog, which the Northwestern should properly give credit to as the source of the story. She said she would have to talk to her editor about that.

The Oshkosh Northwestern reported the story today and, thankfully, has this statement: "The change in policy for the billing was first reported on Oshkosh Common Councilor Tony Palmeri's blog earlier this week."

The issue of mainstream media not giving credit to blogs is a serious one that has been widely discussed. I like the way blogger Josh Marshall framed the issue in 2006:

Writing up or following up on a story and not crediting the news organiztion that first reported it is not a journalistic felony. It's more on the order of a misdemeanor or moving violation. But it is a breach. And mainstream news outlets, a few of which I've actually written for, don't seem to think it applies to blogs that are doing original reporting . . . Conventional news outlets frequently chide blogs for not doing any original reporting but rather feeding off the original reporting of the mainstream media. In many cases, the criticism is merited. But if that is the criticism it behooves every mainstream media outlet to enforce their own standing policies and not allow reporters to rip off blog writers who are doing original reporting.

Gannett's own code of ethics would seem to demand giving credit to sources of news, be they blogs or others:

"We will be honest in the way we gather, report and present news."

Congrats to the Northwestern for upholding that principle in this case.

Few local bloggers, myself included, have the resources or the time necessary to do much original reporting. But on those occasions when original reporting does appear, it deserves to be given credit.