A grad student at Michigan State University writes to get my take on how weblogs are emerging as a journalistic form and how journalistic ethics apply to them. In her online forays she came across my two-part series on weblogs and journalism in OJR. Here are her questions and my responses:

An interesting argument which the articles bring up is that Web logs allow for a lack of creative freedom.

Lack of creative freedom in traditional media, you mean? Absolutely. It’s a function of personal publishing, most often an unfiltered form that lacks the checks and balances of the editorial process but captures the first-person impressions of the author in a more honest, personal and compelling way — from neurons to keyboard.

I have read other arguments that publishing the “best obtainable version of the truth” is in keeping with the spirit of Web logs, and that it sometimes brings out the truth faster.

I’ve only recently run across this argument — that if Woodward and Bernstein had had weblogs, Watergate might have been broken earlier. That’s possible. But it’s hard to imagine that Woodward or Bernstein would have broken many, if any, of their blockbuster revelations on their weblog rather than in the Post, which immediately gave the story national prominence in a way that weblogs are probably decades away from obtaining. They might, however, have dangled a few promising leads (and some dead ends) out there, to see whether they could snag a more solid source. It’s interesting that I haven’t heard of a single investigative reporter use the weblog technique to advance their reporting.

Some of the arguments I have read for a relaxation of rules of objectivity are that journalism is never 100% objective, and blogs just “tear off the wrapping.”

I don’t like the word objectivity applied to journalism, whether online, print or broadcast. What news organizations try to attain is a fair and balanced report on a news subject or event. The majority of weblogs aren’t in that game. They’re more akin to op-ed pages, analyses or personal essays — riffs or rants from a particular slant or from a singular informed view of events. I don’t think many people look to weblogs for a balanced report — they look for a counterview, an alternative POV to what they’re seeing in the mainstream media, one that’s informed but also stripped of some of the pretense of top-down mainstream media where the rules of what’s fair game for publication sometimes have little to do with what’s newsworthy, relevant or meaningful to people’s lives.

Remember, most weblogs aren’t journalism, and most bloggers don’t fancy themselves journalists. But for those who perform many of the functions of journalism — the editorial function of selecting newsworthy and interesting topics, the editorial function of analysis, insight and commentary, the added dash of humor and vivid writing (now more often found in magazines than newspapers), the occasional first-person report about an event, a trend, a subject — then I think they are acting in a journalistic role. And they establish their own credibility, their own publishing record, over the long haul.

How do journalistic ethics apply to blogs in view of these facts? Should traditional ethical standards be relaxed for blogs?

Do, and should, blogs tear off the wrapping of journalism? Yes and no. To the extent that journalistic conventions inhibit the truth from being exposed, protect the powerful or lead the reader astray, yes, absolutely. And I suspect this will be an increasingly important role of weblogs in the years ahead, as they serve as community and media watchdogs, fact-checking the professionals and keeping us all more honest.

To the extent that tearing off the wrapping of journalism means throwing decades of journalistic ethics into a tinderbox and lighting a fuse, then no, absolutely not. Accuracy, credibility, trustworthiness and being straight up with your peers are still guideposts that any good online journalist or weblogger should abide by.

In his first interview on the subject of Internet reporting, Ted Koppel told me a few years ago that the primary responsibility of journalists in any medium is to separate truth from rumor. He said: “Reporting is not really about, `Let’s see who can get the first information to the public as quickly as possible.’ It should be about `Let’s see who can get the first information to the public as quickly as possible — as soon as we have had a chance to make sure the information is accurate, to weigh it against what we know, to put it in some sort of context.’ ”

That still holds true for any publication that considers itself a news medium. If you’re a journalist with a weblog, I can see instances where you post a report you’ve heard and ask your readers whether anyone can substantiate it. But I don’t think you can look on the Internet as a medium that permits a lower form of journalism, one in which you say, ‘Here’s a rumor about this person and I have no idea if it’s true or not, and I’m not going to try to verify it or check it out because that’s not my job. Information wants to be free.’ That’s bullshit.

Interestingly, I’ve never heard any weblogger suggest that ethical standards should be relaxed or lowered for blogs. What they say is that weblogs aspire to a higher ethical standard than traditional media by hewing unwaveringly to the truth, without regard to profits, corporate policy, political power or other considerations.

Is a lack of politeness or regard for other people’s points of view justified?

No. But I actually see far more respect for other writers’ point of view in the weblog community than, say, on any cable talk show, such as MSNBC’s “Hardball,” for instance. But that’s not unethical, just unprofessional. And ultimately, anyone with any common sense will stop beating a path to your door.

Any other insights you can provide would be really helpful.

I’ve created a story page on this site that contains pointers to my past responses to students about weblogs and online journalism. And there’s also the Weblogs & the News resource page that points to articles about the intersection of journalism and blogging.

And, finally, if any bloggers out there want to add their own comments about blogging and journalistic ethics (either on their own weblogs or through email), I’ll pass those messages or urls along. Good luck!

This entry originally appeared June 27, 2002, on my Manila blog.

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JD Lasica, founder of Inside Social Media, is also a fiction author and the co-founder of the cruise discovery engine Cruiseable. See his About page, contact JD or follow him on Twitter.