Can You Cite an Off The Record Conversation

Nelson Minar who works with the Google Web API team raises a good point - “Anyone talking to media knows that telling a journalist something “off the record” means you’re telling them so they know it. It’s not going to stay secret. But it also clearly means that the comments aren’t to be used a primary source. The point of “off the record” is to steer a journalist the right way so they can dig in deeper and get the real story from a real source, on the record.

Blogs are great for discussing current events, particularly shades and nuance from multiple angles. But real journalism has a strong code of ethics, a responsibility to source reports, and careful editorial review.” Link.

Never Fool Your Intelligent Blog Readers by Self Linking

Continuing the discussion on internal linking (the anchor text says Firefox but the link goes to another page on your own site), Jeremy is asking bloggers who practice this art to “start respecting the intelligence of their readers.”

Jeremy has written a very good analogy - it’s dishonest, like putting an EXIT sign over a door in a shop which instead goes into another part of the shop. It’s against the principles of the net, and, frankly, tells me that something is wrong in the state of Web 2.0 if this kind of thing is considered acceptable or even good practice. Link.

A Sticker Set for Highlighting Poor Journalism

Tom Scott has created warning labels that you can print on your own and use them to highlight PR-driven and other poorly researched stories that are published in newspapers (and even online blogs).