CINCINNATI (TDB) -- So desperate for news items, the Cincinnati Enquirer appears to have resorted to outright theft on Politics Extra, its political blog. The paper's crack political reporting team apparently didn't know about this news until several long hours after it appeared in The Daily Bellwether, which is checked daily by the newspaper. The Bellwether's piece about U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt being invited to speak at the values voters conference was on the Internet since early Tuesday, nearly a half day before the Enquirer got around to reporting anything about it. The newspaper no doubt read The Bellwether, but it didn't give credit, or couldn't admit it was scooped again.
Glad to see Washington reporter Malia Rulon found the news worthy of reporting. But, geez, guys, don't you have any ethics?
[UPDATE: 5:55 pm 10/10/07 -- Malia Rulon e-mailed The Bellwether today saying she learned of the Schmidt appearance at the Values Voters confab from another source. Here's what she says: "I was forwarded you blog today. I had not seen your earlier post about Rep. Schmidt speaking aat the FRC meeting, so apologies if you think I copied you without credit. As you've seen in the past, I do credit when I get a tip from a blog. In this case, my colleague who covers Fred Thompson pointed Schmidt's speaking slot out to me since he's covering the event." I asked Malia if I could update with what she said, and she responded fine.]
"But, geez, guys, don't you have any ethics?"
ReplyDeleteHa!
Hi Dean --
ReplyDeleteI know, I laughed when I wrote it. You know, Dean, some people down at the Enqy do have ethics, there are lots of good people there. By the way, I heard great things about Justin at the P. Ridge forum from people who were there last week. He was a hit.
Bill - it is happening all OVER the place. Somehow, we have to figure out a way to make it routine - if we're linking to them, they should be linking to us - I don't care what they think. It's not right, period. Sorry it happened - no doubt, it's going to happen again and more often.
ReplyDeleteHi Jill --
ReplyDeleteWell, we should all call them on it.
Let me know when it happens to you. I will raise cane, and for anybody else, too. Maybe we could point out what seems to have happened here -- or, Jill, you could raise the issue in general as a media post about MSM having sticky fingers.
Jane Prendergast (the Enky's City Hall reporter) and Jessica Brown (their county govt. reporter) routinely get their news tips from other media sources -- including blogs -- without giving any credit.
ReplyDeleteThis is how the Enky learned about the whole "Bengals wanting to shoot pigeons" story.
I think this is an outgrowth of staff cuts and putting people on beats with no institutional knowledge or sources.