Thursday, June 08, 2006

A little bit of online thievery


Many media outlets are reluctant to acknowledge the source of their stories, especially when they come from blogs or other online sites.
That's why I was so pleased this morning to see the Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran an article on the settlement of former KODE reporter Marny Stanier's age and sex discrimination lawsuit against The Weather Channel. The newspaper credited News Blues for TV Insiders, an online website, which concentrates on television news items.
News Blues ran its item Monday, June 5. The Turner Report broke the story on Thursday, June 1, taking it directly from records from the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. In fact, when I ran the post, I was mentally kicking myself because it was settled in late April, but I had not checked the site for updates since well before that time.
I was prepared to call it a coincidence that both News Blues and I ran this story six weeks late. However, a few hours ago I received an e-mail from a former area resident who now lives in Georgia who was upset to read the Journal-Constitution's item giving credit to News Blues.
"I sent that item to News Blues and I gave The Turner Report full credit," the reader wrote, adding that the online site gave no credit to this blog when the Marny Stanier story ran Monday.
So thanks to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for doing things the right way. It is a shame that News Blues was so desperate for an exclusive had to latch on to someone else's.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I know one blogger who has a chub.