February 28, 2006 7:02 PM

A model of a responsible blog

How blogs should deal with fairness issues that we face in newspapers every day is an important question. My experience with Romenesko, in my view the best media blog, suggests an example that others should follow.

It all started when I received word last Friday while in Chicago that a blog, NewWest.net, had posted a column criticizing YourHub.com, a citizen journalism initiative of the Rocky Mountain News.

The headline on Romenesko said: Politicians use Denver newspapers' website to post "stories"
New West
Howard Rothman says Colorado politicians have discovered that they can go to YourHub.com -- created by the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News -- and "post whatever they like in 'news stories' and 'columns' which carry no costs like a traditional advertisement and have a degree of implied authenticity that elevates them beyond anything a paid ad could dream to achieve."

I e-mailed Jim Romenesko and asked whether he would let me respond on his site. "Send a letter and I'll post," Jim replied.

I wrote a lengthy response over the weekend, in part because two writers for the Poynter Institute, Steve Yelvington and Kelly McBride, used Rothman's column as a springboard to pontificate about citizen journalism and YourHub.com.

That could have made Romenesko's earlier promise sticky, I realized after I sent him my letter, because Romenesko works for Poynter as well.

But come Monday, not only was my letter posted with its own headline on Romenesko, just the way Rothman's had been, but he also went back to Rothman's earlier post and added "Read Rocky Mountain News editor John Temple's response," with a link to my letter.

The headline linking to my letter said: Rocky editor Temple responds to critics of YourHub.com
Romenesko Letters
"We haven’t had a problem with readers telling us they’re confused about what YourHub.com is," says Rocky Mountain News editor John Temple. "They seem to get it. We have run into many journalists frightened by an environment where citizens can say what they think unedited, except for a profanity filter, and appalled that everybody can exercise the same First Amendment rights on a newspaper-owned Web site - even PR people, businesses and politicians." PLUS: A Duke marketing professor explains the controversial film reviews study.

Romenesko added one more sentence, and he was right to do it.

It said: > Earlier: Politicos use Denver papers' website to post "stories" (Letters)

In other words, he linked to Rothman from the bottom of my item.

I can't think of anything more he could have done to handle this issue fairly. This example is a model of how fairness can, and should, be a part of the daily operation of a blog - or at least a blog that wants to earn its readers' trust.

Posted by at 7:02 PM | Comments (0)