Reportage Medialog

Interesting op-ed piece by Edward Wasserman, Knight professor of journalism ethics at Washington and Lee University in the Miami Herald (free registration required) about the ongoing plagiarism controversies in US journalism. He makes the interesting point that one form of serioous intellectual theft that is often unacknowledged is institutional:

Respect for precedence — acknowledging work that preceded and materially contributed to your own — gives us a handle on the worst form of intellectual theft in journalism, which is practiced not by individuals but by institutions. It’s when whole stories reported by smaller organizations are appropriated, re-reported and published by market-dominant media, which never mention who broke them.

Here, I think the public suffers. How important information comes to light is itself important information. If lesser news outfits ferret out hard-to-get scoops we should know that. We might support smaller media more generously, and the upshot would be stronger, richer and more-diverse information sources.

And just so I can post this with a clear conscience I got the link from the always interesting Daily Briefing on Journalism.org!