Ethics

How to Declare Your Conflicts of Interest

The book blogger Edward Champion has written one of the greatest conflict of interest declarations of all time: I have no connection with any of these authors. The only conflict of interest here involves one of the books being edited by a loathsome liar and rumormongering backstabber whom I strongly detest. He has pushed many kind heads beneath the undertow for careerist purposes and, despite leading a smear campaign accusing bloggers of unethical journalism many years ago, he has evinced pure ... (read more)

2022/10/21

Times Responds to Roger Cohen's Mistake

I sent New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan an email yesterday describing how Roger Cohen borrowed quotes in his recent column on oversharing. She got back to me today letting me know that this editor's note was added to the column: In this column, the author suggested that he was moved to talk about over-sharing and anxiety online after he came across two comments on Twitter. In fact, both comments were taken from a Web site, overshare.com, that the writer consulted as part of his ... (read more)

2012/12/11

Times Columnist Roger Cohen Borrows Quotes

The New York Times columnist Roger Cohen engages in some ethically questionable journalism in his column Thursday about people sharing too much on Facebook and Twitter. In his commentary, Cohen shares this lament: Now I was determined to get through 2012 without doing a peevish column ... but everyone has a tipping point. Mine occurred when I came across this tweet from Claire: "Have such a volcanically deep zit laying roots in my chin that it feels like someone hit me with a right ... (read more)

2012/12/10

Full Disclosure: TechCrunch is Screwed

"We have a traditional understanding of journalism with the exception of TechCrunch." -- AOL chief executive officer Tim Armstrong Around five years ago, Microsoft fueled a controversy by giving $4,000 Acer Ferrari 1000 laptop computers running Windows Vista Ultimate to some popular tech bloggers. A lot of bloggers -- particularly those who did not receive incredibly overpriced luxury branded laptops -- raised such a ruckus that Microsoft eventually asked for them back. Bloggers who ... (read more)

2011/09/06

The Destruction of Andrew Breitbart

We here at Studio B did not run the video and did not reference the story in any way for many reasons, among them: we didn't know who shot it, we didn't know when it was shot, we didn't know the context of the statement, and because of the history of the videos on the site where it was posted, in short we do not and did not trust the source. -- Fox News anchor Shepard Smith on Andrew Breitbart By virtue of publishing the Drudge Retort, I've been following the career of Andrew Breitbart for ... (read more)

2010/07/22

Disclosing Paid Placements on a Blog

Mel Cooley: "I didn't come here to be insulted!" Buddy Sorrell: "Oh, where do you usually go to be insulted?" Last month I called out Dave Winer for selling a paid placement in Radio UserLand that was never disclosed to his users. This sparked a tempest in a TechMeme in which Mike Arrington dropped the hammer on Winer, declaring that his credibility was permanently shot by the secret deal. I am now obligated, under enemy of my enemy is my friend rules, to extend to Arrington my warm hand of ... (read more)

2009/04/12

AP Reporter Fabricates 45 Sources

The Associated Press has issued a huge correction after one of its reporters, Christopher Newton, quoted more than 45 fictitious sources in his stories. Newton was incredibly brazen, making up numerous professors, researchers, and public policy organizations. Some of the sources were placed at real institutions such as the University of Texas, the National Organization for Women, and Consumer Reports magazine, but he wasn't caught for several years. Matt Drudge got away with something similar ... (read more)

2002/10/24