Comments on: The Chronicle/Gate’s Contradictory Views Regarding “Credit” And Linking

By: milkcluber

milkcluber — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:37:00 +0000

What I’d really like to see is attribution to political consultants and hit men when they plant stories for their clients, like Gary South in Carla’s frequent reports on Jerry Brown, or laudatory reports on Newsom. Why give cover to paid flacks?

By: Akit

Akit — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 00:09:26 +0000

I had a suspicion that the Chronicle/SFgate was also using some of my material.

One in particular was when I published on my blog on May 7th about cell phones being tested to pay for BART rides when Translink was on the horizon. Since I got information from Brittney Gilbert’s “Eye on Blogs” posting (on May 6th), and I gave her the appropriate credit for her work.

Then on May 18th, I noticed a posting from “Matier & Ross” talking about BART’s cell phone experiment and the Translink program. Strangely, the press conference with BART’s James Fang doing the demonstration was on May 7th (as per Gilbert), and the Chron/Gate covered it on the 18th? When I first read the story from the duo, I was a little intrigued if they used any of my material.

Andy Ross replied back to an e-mail I sent about my concern and stated that he never heard of my blog. Although, Phil Matier didn’t write back.

By: bloomsm

bloomsm — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 14:14:38 +0000

Seems like, as a user, the only thing I could add is that I’m not interested in “news” that the Chronicle regurgitates from another site. But, I’m also not interested in receiving footnoted or reference-laden articles, for ease of use. I do appreciate cited sources when the Chronicle is not relying on its own interviews or leg work, but the standards these days are such that I (reflexively) question stories that cite “Chronicle sources”. this is a super-inside newsroom concern.

By: cedichou

cedichou — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 01:42:31 +0000

I am rooting for a Hulk-smashing-the-Chron trilogy.

By: velorution

velorution — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 23:24:57 +0000

I think the issue is size and mainstreaminess. The Chronicle is a big paper and it doesn't yet think it needs to hat tip the blogs. Same goes for other large outlets, for the most part. The most egregious case for me personally came when I wrote this article on bicycle parking at old meters when cities remove them for Streetsblog on July 1st, 2009: http://sf.streetsblog.org/2009/07/01/when-old-parking-meter-poles-go-so-often-does-bike-parking/ On July 16th, 2009, Patrick Walters of the Associated Press wrote the exact same story: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=8096183 He changed only one or two of the cities he referred to. He even interviewed two of the same sources I did, Transportation Alternatives in NYC and East Bay Bicycle Coalition in Oakland. Because his was a wire story, it was picked up all over the country, from Seattle Times to Huffington Post. I wrote him and asked if he got his story from my report, but no reply. The chronology is clear, the sources are identical in two instances, but the credit stays with the AP.

By: Tim Ehhalt

Tim Ehhalt — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 21:01:41 +0000

Thanks. I’m famous, I’m on the internet!

By: Christine Borden

Christine Borden — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:59:06 +0000

P.S. Tim’s photo illustration is awesome.