John Pallatto, we bloggers are not journalists and don’t want to be. Blogs are different from journalism. If we wanted to be journalist, we would have gone to J-School and then do time at a bush league paper, despite what you say in Bloggers Can’t Ignore Basic Journalism Ethics.
We bloggers enjoy freedom from rigorous journalistic standards and we like it that way. Why are you attacking the bloggers here? Bloggers are absolutely not beholden to anyone save their readers.
The only trust to which bloggers are beholden is to our readership. We’re not reporters, we’re not journalists, and we’re not the press — and it is reporters, journalist, and the press that need to evolve or perish. And it became obvious at the last WeMedia conference that Main Stream Media desperately wants to co-opt us blogger.
We don’t want to be. We have more in common with Rusty Humphries and Laura Ingram than with anyone else. We can say and do anything we want. We are not held to the same standards as the unholy priesthood, journalism. I think that organizations that already do have ethical guidelines should stick to them more closely, such as PR firms, marketing firms, and Newspapers.
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The journalism gods agree with you:
http://poynter.org/column.asp?id=31&aid=116000