This post is dolphin-safe...

Are bloggers journalists? How about are journalists journalists?

With all of the fussing about how bloggers don’t check their facts, and run with stories before confirmation, you would think that MSM reporters would take that (alleged) differentiation and run with it. If they’re going to repeat that allegation again and again, they’ll make sure that their fact-checking is airtight, right?

Well, apparently not all of them. In a story about the Michael Vick dog fighting allegations and his NFL suspension, MSNBC ran a quote that they attributed to the Rev. Al Sharpton, which stated:

“If the police caught Brett Favre (a white quarterback for the Green Bay Packers) running a dolphin-fighting ring out of his pool, where dolphins with spears attached to their foreheads fought each other, would they bust him? Of course not.”

MSNBC said the quote came from Sharpton’s “personal blog.” Which, of course, it didn’t—it came from a site that is clearly a parody site. The post on News Groper is so obviously a parody I can’t imagine who thought it was actually Rev. Sharpton’s blog. On the page, it has listed Al Gore, Bill Clinton, Lindsey Lohan, Dalia Lama, Paris Hilton, Mitt Romney, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as “featured bloggers.” Seriously, no one at MSNBC said “hey…wait a minute…”?

MSNBC has since pulled the quote and stated that it was a “hoax.” Well, as The Moderate Voice points out, not really. A hoax, as defined by dictionary.com is “an act intended to deceive or trick.” A parody is defined as “to imitate…for purposes of ridicule or satire.” News Groper didn’t set out to “deceive or trick” MSNBC, they have a parody site, “for purposes of ridicule or satire.” Thirty seconds of research would have reinforced that distinction.

By the way, the comments on the Gawker story are priceless: “…maybe they did it on porpoise,” and “since no one else has dug up this hackneyed pun, I'll just point out Brett Favre does it for the halibut.”

H/T to The Glittering Eye.

 

Technorati tags: bloggers+journalists, Michael Vick, dolphins with spears, News Groper

Comments

[Todd Van Hoosear]

I've been blogging for 3+ years, am in the Power 150, and STILL haven't been invited to the MediaMap (now Cision) editorial directory. *sigh*

With speed being the paramount concern, accuracy issues like this are going to increase. But the structure of the web typically quickly recovers from such inaccuracies propogating. At least so say the believers in the "self-correcting blogosphere". Google that phrase and enjoy the (mostly political and very often skeptical) reading.

[Jen White]

I agree that this will likely increase--and a key factor in this particular situation I think is the fact that Sharpton has said some colorful things in the past--often enough so that "dolphins with spears" didn't raise a red flag.

Thanks for the tip on "self-correcting blogosphere," that certainly did account for some entertaining reading material.

[Sarah Wurrey]

"All I asked for were frigging sharks, with frigging laserbeams attached to their heads!"

I think we need more posts tagged "dolphins with spears." Our numbers would skyrocket!

(Better to have posts about dolphins with spears than posts about Britney Spears anyway.)

(Zing!)

[Con von Hoffman]

I couldn't agree more.

The debate over the difference between bloggers and journalists is a false dichotomy. ANYONE who is willing to do the research, ask the questions, check the facts and publish the results is a journalist.

That automatically disqualifies any number of bloggers and people who are paid journalists.

As I always said to new reporters and people wanting to go into journalism: The actual basic skills of journalism aren’t that hard to learn. What is hard to learn is to think critically. That’s why I ALWAYS encourage people who want to become journalists not to major in journalism but in something that will teach you to think. Most of the rest you can learn on the job.