ONA: Blogging ethics

Steve Safran October 18th, 2007

Amy Webb blogs this evening’s session on “blogging ethics” (there are ethics?) and it’s a topic that will raise some eyebrows. From Amy’s notes:

Very proud to announce that we’re developing a set of working blogging guidelines here at ONA that we’re hoping newsrooms will take and adapt for their own use.

Says someone from Bloomberg (I think - can’t hear): We’re all professional. We should never want to be accused of being not fair or not credible if we’re professional journalists. Why would we “spout uninformed opinion?” Journos shouldn’t blog. Employers shouldn’t necessarily allow blogging… It’s not “freedom of speech.” If you want total freedom, then don’t work for a large news organization.

Says me (Amy): Oddly, no one seems miffed by this statement. I think she’s missing the point here, and taking things to extreme levels.

Really? How did that get by without someone taking a swing? As it is, any discussion of a blogger code of ethics gets the ol’ one-two punch. But someone making a blanket statement like “journos shouldn’t blog” without being challenged by a room full of journalists?