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1.  

   Cuts both ways

   

   Anonymous Coward, Jun 5th, 2003 @ 5:01pm

   
   

   It could be that ethical standards of traditional media declined in the first place because the internet made profit margins slimmer, and media is under pressure to cut costs.
   
   For now, bloggers are patting themselves on the back for playing the watch dog/underdog role, but we'll see what happens when people start performing conspiracies by blogging -- e.g. a journalist who did quote correctly is accused by multiple bloggers of misquoting.
   

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2.  

   Re: Cuts both ways

   

   Mike (profile), Jun 5th, 2003 @ 5:03pm

   
   

   Absolutely. But, hopefully, any such mischaracterization on either side will get called out quickly.
   
   It's certainly not a perfect way of doing things, but it's more likely to get out the full story.

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3.  

   Fake photos too

   

   Anonymous Coward, Jun 5th, 2003 @ 5:06pm

   
   

   Back during the Yugoslav conflict, a British journalist took a picture of a Bosnian heroin addict through the fence of a chicken coop and called it a "concentration camp photo", leading Western nations to anti-Serbian frenzy. Future bloggers will have all the more opportunities to make fake photos that "expose" whatever.
   

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4.  

   Re: Cuts both ways

   

   Anonymous Coward, Jun 5th, 2003 @ 5:10pm

   
   

   >Absolutely. But, hopefully, any such mischaracterization on either side will get called out quickly.< br>>It's certainly not a perfect way of doing things, but it's more likely to get out the full story.
   
   I'm not so sure. If the story takes place in a setting that is difficult to verify, it's easy for bloggers to make up a "full story". It will be easy for professional propagandists to infiltrate the web culture and make up realistic-sounding stories. We may be entering an era of a credibility crisis, in which nobody is trusted to have an objective view.
   

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5.  

   Re: Cuts both ways

   

   Mike (profile), Jun 5th, 2003 @ 5:52pm

   
   

   I'm not so sure. If the story takes place in a setting that is difficult to verify, it's easy for bloggers to make up a "full story". It will be easy for professional propagandists to infiltrate the web culture and make up realistic-sounding stories. We may be entering an era of a credibility crisis, in which nobody is trusted to have an objective view.
   
   Well, that's exactly the point, isn't it? If the story is difficult to verify, then it raises doubts.

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6.  

   Reporting truth

   

   Sue, Jun 6th, 2003 @ 9:51am

   
   

   I've been a journalist for almost 20 years now (eek!). Most of the people I know TRY to be as accurate and truthful as possible, but there's a lot of time pressure, scoop pressure, financial pressure and managers who loves young go-getters. Unfortunately there's very little nurturing, mentoring, dues paying or ethical discussions until something like Jayson Blair happens.

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