Bloggers and Journalists Not as Different As They Appear
September 24, 2012
The Joshua Topolsky Blog recently published a response to criticism from several bloggers regarding The Verge’s coverage of Apple copycats, called ”Integrity and Bullies With Blogs.”
Topolsky, the editor-in-chief of The Verge, calls out several bloggers who have written slanderous “conspiracy theories” accusing The Verge of covering products which resemble or outright boost the industrial design of an Apple product and then purposefully withholding mention of this fact for some kind of gain. He argues that the publication he works for in no way alters or softens stories in order to win favor with a particular company and then goes on site several examples.
Topolsky writes:
“We are not in the business of helping out companies — we’re in the business of writing and reporting news for our readers. And that’s it, plain and simple. The idea that we would attempt to get into the good graces of a company by giving them favorable coverage is simply laughable. If you heard the crazy, angry calls I get from PR people over the coverage we do, you would know this. We have literally been shut out of access to certain companies over our harsh coverage — to suggest we kowtow to them is not only stupid, it’s simply wrong.”
Real journalists are not bullies. Examples of appropriate behavior include: Rupert Murdoch and wiretapping, William Randolph Hearst and the creation of yellow journalism, and Jayson Blair, the life coach who wrote some interesting stories which appeared in the New York Times as news. Now it is up to bloggers to work to make clear where the truth resides.
Jasmine Ashton, September 24, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Comments
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
