Journalism In the Digital Era: It's for Chumps

Man, this is the kind of stuff that can ruin your day. Ruin your year, for that matter.

The short version is that a Washington Post reporter wrote a story, meaning he spent hours tracking down sources, traveling to talk to the sources, checking and re-checking facts, and then, ya know, writing the story. Only to have the entire thing "stolen" by a site called "Gawker," which specializes in gossip and fluff, with, in effect, no attribution to the original source.

Gawker gets a free story. The WaPo reporter gets, well, nuthin'. Journalism in the age of the internet: Chumpsville.

Although, of course, the WaPo reporter was able to mine the story of the stolen story for another story, the one I linked to above. It's worth reading, because it digs into how/why this can/will affect the future of news.

So hey, go read it. Quick, before Gawker swipes it, too.