What’s new, you might ask, in another tale of careless youth broken on the galley of journalism? Well, someone in power finally stood up—sort of—for the little guy. In a column on the resignation of 20-something Elizabeth Flock after charges of “a significant ethical lapse” and “serious factual errors,” the Washington Post’s Ombudsman Patrick Pexton said, you know what? The newspaper was just as culpable as the reporter: “The Post” he wrote, “failed her as much as she failed The Post.”
As stirring as it is to find a hint of post-hoc compassion in a professional culture where any mistake appears increasingly to be fatal, the question is: [...]
Two things you're supposed to read today:
• On Facebook buying Instagram: "Companies once made sleds or dreamcatchers or software, but that’s all outsourced; an Internet product is very often a thing that lets other people make things—a kind of metaproduct—and you can get 30 million people working for you, for free, if you do a good job of it."
• Are comments actually bad for web business? "In conversations I’ve had with peers in the internet publishing world lately, as well as a resurgence of chatter about comments both online and in schmoozy-cocktail-space, I’m starting to come to a conclusion: comments are more trouble than they [...]
Dog farts + jet lag feels like the worst hangover I've ever had. Ouch.
— Neko Case (@NekoCase) February 9, 2012
Mmm, earlier today someone I follow on Twitter retweeted a famous comedian being dumb, and so I had the joy of blocking both of them. So delicious! Every time I see an ad on Twitter, I block the company. (So long, KmartDeals, StaplesUS, Walmart Specials.) Every time someone annoys me majorly, I don't unfollow: I just go the extra mile and block 'em. It's great! You're nuking them from your universe! Am I annoying you? You should block me too!
All the people who would be [...]
Awl pal Simon Dumenco has put together a group called the Council on Ethical Blogging and Aggregation, which will promulgate standards about how to credit, quote and synthesize the writing of others. "The group will have neither carrot nor stick, but could end up with a kind of Good Housekeeping seal," as David Carr puts it today in the Times. Dumenco himself suggests that the group will work their way towards "a set of perhaps a dozen-ish common-sense guidelines" about how one should blog. I was invited to join the list of signatories, and declined, but solely on the principle that any club that would have us as [...]
Photo-rebroadcasting site Pinterest has rolled out a meta tag that disables people stealin' your photos on Pinterest. It's a good and smart measure for the company, sure. It doesn't mean the vast majority of users aren't copyright infringers, either—but it does protect the company even further than their already totally appropriate DMCA procedures. The vast majority of people will not take advantage of this measure, which makes it seem like they are therefore de facto ceding copyright in exchange for promotion. (Although no action does not equal renouncing one's copyright, of course.) For instance, I can't imagine that we'd ever use it: denying readers the ability [...]
Tmrrw I'll write about my favorite ice cream flavor & then spend three days dealing with press attacks about how unethical I am.
— Michael Arrington (@arrington) February 14, 2012
If you love Internet drama—and why wouldn't you? It's so spiritually refreshing and intellectually fulfilling!—don't miss the current "Silicon Valley tech reporter/investor" throw-down happening at multiple showcases near you. Here's a pretty good entry point: "This started when Nick Bilton of the New York Times posted an item criticizing Path, which had been caught up in a firestorm when it emerged that Path had been uploading entire address books from people’s iPhones. Bilton made the legitimate point [...]
