Rodger Morrow wades into tough questions of journalistic ethics concerning the practice of various writers, pundits or "big" bloggers borrowing (OK, ripping off) ideas or angles from lesser-read bloggers without attribution. Rodger feels snakebit himself lately, and with good reason I think. But he's also sensitive to the difficulty of attributing any single idea in this "blogswarm", echo-chamber environment, which is...
...making authorship more diffuse and anonymous—and transforming the would-be blogopolis into something more akin to a massive focus group...
It's probably tough for someone who draws a paycheck for writing to admit their story angle came from a blogger somewhere. But that doesn't make it fair that, as Morrow says...
...blogs are fast becoming the Kazaa of the paid punditocracy—where sampling is welcomed and payment of artist royalties conveniently ignored.
Take heart Rodger, not only that you have words worth stealing, but that if your blog is in fact in that "lesser-read" category, it won't be there for long.
Posted by dan at February 22, 2005 12:40 AM