August 6, 2003

A Blogosphere Code of Ethics?

Attorney and blogger Justene Adamec thinks the blogosphere needs a code of ethics. I'm not sure I agree - blogging is, at heart, an independent activity that must be kept free of top-down regulation in order to flourish, and a flourishing blogosphere is, I think, a very modern version of what the authors of the First Amendment intended: a free and open exchange of ideas.

That said, I think Justene's first suggested blogosphere ethical rule, When you talk about news, link to it, is a good one.

The advantage to blogs is that the readers can read the original piece and make their own decision, is a good one because it uses blogging tools to their best advantage. Linking to the story you're commenting on says to your readers I'm glad you want to know my opinion, and I trust you to make up your own mind after reading my post and the story I'm commenting on. Let me know if you think I got it wrong.

Extensive linking also enforces a level of honesty - smart bloggers won't consistently misrepresent facts in news stories they link to. Come to think of it, newspapers ought to link to source documents more often, too. For the same reason. And because if they don't, and if they misrepresent something, you can be sure the blogosphere will rapidly catch and expose the error. It's already happening - remember how the British newspaper The Guardian had to admit it had misrepresented a Paul Wolfowitz quote after the various bloggers pointed out the discrepancy between the paper's version and the actual transcript of the interview, which was available online.

That's the blogosphere for you: making it harder and harder to lie.

Of course, one caveat to the suggested rule is this: links often perish. Stories you link to today might not be archived online by the publication whose website you link to - or may be put behind a subscription-only firewall after a few days or weeks of being available online for free. I'd suggest bloggers make sure to not just link to news they are commenting on, but quote from it the key parts, which is allowable under "Fair Use" copyright rules.