Media critic Jason Salzman wrote on Big Media, “home of the Rocky Mountain Media Watch Archive,” about crediting bloggers and traditional media for breaking stories, or giving a hat tip. Salzman’s blogger biography identifies himself as a former Rocky Mountain News media critic and author.
Salzman reported that The Denver Post’s political editor Curtis Hubbard claimed that his newspaper “is committed” to crediting the news outlet that first reports on a story.
Further, he reported that Fred Brown, former co-chair of the Society of Professional Journalists’ ethics committee, likewise tries to credit the news outlet that first reports a story, even if he independently verifies the news. But, in terms of retroactively crediting a news outlet, Brown said “he’d first have to be convinced that another news organization had the story right. If so, he said, to be fair and credible, he’d write a clarification, possibly for the archive, or mention it in a follow-up story, if there were one.”
“It’s not a huge ethical issue,” Brown is quoted as saying. “It’s more a matter of manners, to go back and give credit to the originating organization.”