Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Quoting another news source: what's fair?

I have been told to never, under any circumstances, use another news source's stories for quotes for my own story. I understand that MaineBiz does this frequently in their short online news stories. If they are ok with quoting other Maine newspapers then that's their business. Personally I think it's unethical but who am I? No one important that's who.

Anyway. I follow MaineBiz on twitter and click on the stories they post there once in a while. The most recent story that caught my attention was this one about FairPoint. I can't get enough news about this terrible company...it's like a car wreck -- just can't turn my head away.

But enough about FairPoint...what I want to talk about is what's fair when quoting another news source.

Of course naming the news source in your story is critical. If you don't you could be taken to court for plagiarism. But what about linking the quote to the web page of the news source you are taking it from? Wouldn't that be fair? Or at least linking the name of the other news source to their homepage. I mean, if you are going to steal -- I mean use -- their quotes I think a little kickback would be nice. It's so easy to do these days what with technology and stuff.

So hey, MaineBiz, how about showing some link-y love to your favorite news sources?

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