I done been violated, I think

[wicked]

Great post, PoO.

 

[inthesuburbs]

It seems there were two ethical violations here:

a. You wrote a news story about an event that you are a participant in, and publicist for. (As deputy grand imperial poobah of the group giving the award.)

b. The web site stole part of your story and passed it off as its own work.

You certainly have a right to be the person giving the awards, and writing up press releases about the awards.

And you certainly have a right to write about the awards.

But you have to choose.

Journalists can't cover themselves, or groups they're participating in.

Being a journalist means not taking sides. This dual role doesn't pass the smell test.

 

[pseudo]

Wait. What?

One of the local dailies picks an all-area team, COY, etc., and hosts a banquet for the team. Are you saying they shouldn't write a story from said banquet? Seriously?

 

[inthesuburbs]

Either you're sending out press releases, or you're covering the event.

You can't do both.

Notice how he said he was writing a "story" for the group? No, he wasn't. He was writing a fake story, a press release.

Be in the business of writing press releases, or be in the business of journalism. Choose.

It's fine for the newspaper to write a story about awards it gives. No problem.

But if you're writing press releases, that seems to be a sure sign of not knowing what side of the fence you're on.

Be a journalist!

Or, better yet, if you are the sort who can't tell the difference between journalism and PR, be a flak!

 

[write then drink]

yeah, i'm with suburbs. the more i read this, the more i don't understand the thread.

if you send out a press release, who cares who gets it? you're trying to publicize something and every hit you get helps.

and if you're a sports writer, there's simply no wiggle room on this -- you can't send out a press release.

so for me, what the writer did is way worse than what he's complaining about

 

[slappy4428]

The argument was never about publicizing the award; that was made clear (I thought).
Where the problem came from was attribution of a story (not a press release) with quotes with the attribution from that .com's staff reports when it was not from their staff. The attribution has been changed by the website so it does not read as if their staff wrote it as an original story. I'm good with that and that editor is too.

The press release -- and story -- were written for the state Sports Writers Association and its Mr. Football award. To think that an outside source should be writing press releases for a sportswriting group and its presentation of the award is just flat out stupid. And yes suburbs, despite what you thought, I wrote two things: a press release and a story. The story had quotes and the release didn't; there was no fake story and I'm sorry you can't wrap your head around that. Newspapers around the state could understand that. And ran the story knowing what was going on. There was no deception or trying to be something it wasn't.

Actually, despite what suburbs thinks you can do both. I wouldn't make it a habit and I haven't made it career. But I am quite comfortable with providing both story and a release to a group of sportswriters and their papers on who won their player of the year award. I wasn't covering myself. But with several papers in the state participating in the whole process and only a handful having a dog in the fight, they also should have someone from their organization writing about the award, should they not?

 

[Stitch]

Yes, your paper and others should have someone writing about the award, but not someone whose job it is to publicize the event. And if a Web site stole your story, it's not your fight. It's up to your editor and publisher to go after them.

Oh, the conflict is not about other newspapers. Disclosing a conflict of interest is used to inform the readers.

 

[Some Guy]

Either you're sending out press releases, or you're covering the event.

I'm pretty sure we've established that this wasn't a "press release" in the official, pr-flak sense.

The dude was helping out other papers who couldn't attend, papers that had scratched his paper's back before. We've all been there.

As for the original question, it would be hard for me to get worked up about a dot.com swiping a quote about a HS football banquet. But that's just me.

 

[SouthernStyle]

Hold up cats.

First: Slappy is not a PR guy. He is a reporter, as he has stated multiple times.

Second: The said awards ceremony is a very big deal. It's not the type of event that has to beg for publicity. This is actually one of the bigger award ceremonies in this neck of the woods.

Third: "The release" that was sent out was only forwarded to a few — basically members of the organization that were not able to attend. Sending the "release" was not Slappy's job. It was just a courtesy to the other members.

Pretty much, the sports departments at most of the state's traditional media outlets received the "release" since they are all members of the organization that hosts the event. The blog/site that took the info, copied and pasted and claimed the work as its own is not a member, so the release was not sent to them.

In other words, the blog/site janked Slappy's stuff — since the "release" is really not a press release.

Unfortunately, this crap happens all the time. And sadly, there is very little that can be done.

 

[slappy4428]

Well said, SS...
When I posted this, yeah, I thought the site had rewritten the lead and janked the stuff passing it off as its own,
But the site didn't jank the stuff. The lead was rewritten, the bulk left untouched including quotes and sent to the site by someone who had provided copy to them during the season; the way the lead was changed should have told me who it was. The site thought it was this person's work.
It has since changed the attribution, which was what bothered me in the first place.

 

[Stitch]

Second: The said awards ceremony is a very big deal. It's not the type of event that has to beg for publicity. This is actually one of the bigger award ceremonies in this neck of the woods.

It's not that big of a deal if slappy is writing copy for all of these other papers to use.

 

[SouthernStyle]

Second: The said awards ceremony is a very big deal. It's not the type of event that has to beg for publicity. This is actually one of the bigger award ceremonies in this neck of the woods.

It's not that big of a deal if slappy is writing copy for all of these other papers to use.

In the past, most papers would've sent someone to the event. However, the venue changed this year and seating was limited. He also didn't send the story to every paper in the state. Only the few that were unable to attend.

I think all the pointless rambling has drowned the point of this post. In our state, cheap, shady sports blogs/.coms are popping up all over the place. Every significant town has one or two. Now, I'm not saying that all bloggers are lazy. I'm just saying the bloggers in my neck of the woods are.

For example: A sports blogger in my town is notorious for stealing copy from our Web site/print edition, changing a FEW words and posting it as their own work without giving attribution to my paper. Is this ethical? Absolutely not.

How do I know this .com is stealing our work? Well, we caught the site "borrowing" our copy last year. During basketball season, a gamer was posted on our Web site before all corrections had been made for the next day's print edition. In this gamer, the score was reversed. While we caught the mistake before it went to press, the error was on our Web site. And ironically, a similar story with the exact same mistakes — there was more than one error in the story that was accidentally posted on our site — was on the .com's site.

The good news is that we realized the erroneous story had been posted on our Web site a few minutes after the section had been put to bed, so the mistakes were corrected before we left the office that night. However, our pirating friends at the .com were not aware of any mistakes in the copy, so…well, I think everyone gets the drift.

While some of these .coms are legit, there's also a a lot of fly-by-night "media outlets" out there. Will organizations like this put us out of business? Probably not. But at the same time, it's annoying when someone takes your work and claims it as their own.

 

[slappy4428]

Second: The said awards ceremony is a very big deal. It's not the type of event that has to beg for publicity. This is actually one of the bigger award ceremonies in this neck of the woods.

It's not that big of a deal if slappy is writing copy for all of these other papers to use.

Yeah... wait....

 

[dixiehack]

In our state, cheap, shady sports blogs/.coms are popping up all over the place. Every significant town has one or two.

Dammit, I knew we shouldn't have moved across the county line. I feel so ... insignificant.

 

[schiezainc]

Honestly, I think your editor needs to have a talk with this footballbull****blog.org web site and tell them "Write your own copy and do your 'job'".

 

[slappy4428]

Honestly, I think your editor needs to have a talk with this footballbull****blog.org web site and tell them "Write your own copy and do your 'job'".

My editor had nothing to do with it... for lack of a better term, I was the pool reporter...

And Dixie, you can move across the county line... am thinkin 25 or 64... maybe 8... that would be good for you...

 

[dixiehack]

And Dixie, you can move across the county line... am thinkin 25 or 64... maybe 8... that would be good for you...

Slap, why do you hate variety in the gene pool?

 

[slappy4428]

And Dixie, you can move across the county line... am thinkin 25 or 64... maybe 8... that would be good for you...

Slap, why do you hate variety in the gene pool?

There are no ripples in those pools -- and it shows