Getting And Giving Credit

By Big Tent Democrat, Section Media
Posted on Thu Nov 13, 2008 at 10:51:02 AM EST
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Chicago Dyke writes:

Do paid professional journalists have any obligation at all to review the blogosphere, as they produce writing on various topics that are “new to them,” but well-discussed here in the blogosphere? . . . Do any of us deserve credit, or notice, or a chance to respond when our work is…let’s call it “mirrored” in the SCLM?

I think not for the most part. Finding the originator of an idea is an impossible task. That said, bloggers should really try and credit originators as best they can. This reminds me of the time a blogger at daily kos credited Michael Tomasky for the idea of "the Common Good" when it was Congressman Jim McDermott, in an interview FOR DAILY KOS, a good year before Tomasky wrote his derivative piece - who came up with the Common Good theme. Seems to me it is hard to get upset with the Media when the blogs themselves are quick to denigrate and ignore work produced at their own blogs.

Speaking for me only

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Getting And Giving Credit | 11 comments (11 topical)

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blogs should certainley get credit (5.00 / 2) (#7)
by Pepe on Thu Nov 13, 2008 at 11:39:21 AM EST

for all the untruths, slants, half-facts, misinformation, prejudices, and outright lies that are written almost ever day of the year, that unfortunately take the shine off the good that is written.

Election '08 took all of that to a whole new level and IMO blogs lost a lot of what they formerly represented.

Many blogs even turned on their readership and posters so the sense of community and the free flow of ideas and opinions was stamped out by the very people who say they represent those things along with a peoples free press. Well they brought those fallacies to light. Red China feels vindicated in their censorship of the internet as it is alive and well in the good old USA.

?? Philip Howard has been (none / 0) (#1)
by ThatOneVoter on Thu Nov 13, 2008 at 11:01:27 AM EST

Mr. "Common Good" for years.
McDermott does not deserve any credit for current use of that term.

: Check out: (none / 0) (#4)
by ThatOneVoter on Thu Nov 13, 2008 at 11:03:51 AM EST

and notice what former tobacco lobbyist Phillip K. Howard likes about Max Baucus---not the health care, but the "tort reform".

: Not the point (none / 0) (#5)
by Big Tent Democrat on Thu Nov 13, 2008 at 11:21:44 AM EST

Instead of doing this all over again, check the thread linked.

do i get credit (none / 0) (#2)
by Turkana on Thu Nov 13, 2008 at 11:02:26 AM EST

for "the great convergence" (first mentioned here)?

oops (none / 0) (#3)
by Turkana on Thu Nov 13, 2008 at 11:03:36 AM EST

used the same link twice- second one is here.

Everyone should try and credit (none / 0) (#6)
by Faust on Thu Nov 13, 2008 at 11:21:51 AM EST

originators as best they can.

Finding an idea's origin is often very difficult or even impossible. However if everyone credited at least the immediate origin of whatever idea they are working with as best they understand it then I imagine reference chains would rise up pretty naturally.

On the other hand blogging has plenty of misprisioning in it imo.

"The Common Good (none / 0) (#8)
by centralismo on Thu Nov 13, 2008 at 12:32:24 PM EST

is a concept central to the Catholic Social Teaching tradition beginning with the foundational document, Rerum Novarum, a papal encyclical by Pope Leo XIII, issued in 1891 to combat the excesses of both laissez-faire capitalism on the one hand and communism on the other. In this letter, Pope Leo guarantees the right to private property while insisting on the role of the state to require a living wage. The means of production were considered by the pope to be both private property requiring state protection and a dimension of the common good requiring state regulation."

Link here, with historical context as to its place in modern, U.S. Progressive politics.

Attribution is important (none / 0) (#10)
by wurman on Thu Nov 13, 2008 at 01:11:55 PM EST

Often, though, writers in general & bloggers in particular may not actually KNOW which of his/her previous readings influence the thinking & writing that ends up on line, in an article, or in a book.

Some plagiarism is intentional--& mostly unethical. A great deal of it, though, is either inadvertent or considered unimportant by the writer. If a blogger picks up a general idea, such as "common good," it's difficult to clearly identify a single specific source.

Sometimes, it's useful to point out that blogs, comments, websites, on-line articles, even magazine & newspaper articles, are not exactly scholarly efforts that deserve or require references, footnotes, & a bibliography.

Maybe there's a level of sloppiness that's not acceptable. Still, this is usually pretty informal stuff & a great many assumptions are made regularly about the readers' degrees of understanding about a topic.

Michael Kraus, Grand Valley State Univ.

The debate over the common good has existed since Plato wrote the Republic in the late 5th century BC. Common good can hold different meanings depending on one's involvement. For example, if City Hall makes a decision that is good for its citizens, but not good for citizens of a neighboring city, is that the common good? And, what is good? It can be defined as "doing what is right or proper" (Webster's 1990, pg. 255), but does everyone agree what actions achieve common good? Probably not (Powell and Clemens, 1998).

Marx & Engels also wrote somewhat on the "common good."

Seem to be many sources for this concept, over time.

: MSM is apparently not good about crediting MSM (5.00 / 1) (#11)
by jerry on Thu Nov 13, 2008 at 03:30:28 PM EST

I am not a journalist, but even within the MSM, my understanding is they are not all that good about crediting each other.
Rivalries.
And even worse, if Paper A finds out Paper B is writing about a story, instead of writing two stories, Paper A may just opt out.
I think the MSM should credit bloggers and each other.
Many times, I just wish they would read some of the bloggers, they often seem to be days or weeks behind the times.

Duh Dilligence perhaps ? (none / 0) (#12)
by msobel on Fri Nov 14, 2008 at 08:21:50 AM EST

Perhaps if the MSM author did a little smidge of due diligence, perhaps a Lexis, Google and Wikipedia search which would take enough time for their half caff no foam cap to cool, it would not be malpractice.

In other words, if I said that the GOP has come up with the incisive phrase "Crashing the Gates" for overcoming traditional political gatekeepers without doing a google search I would be guilty of what I am going to define as anal ostrichism, defined as sticking your head up your ass, or in another metaphorical phrase I just coined tri-simianism (see no blogs, hear no blogs, talk crap)