Naughty Guardian! Naughty!

Posted on October 6, 2005 by Ian Betteridge

UPDATE: The writer of the Guardian’s story, Bobbie Johnson, comments below that he approached Tom and checked if he wanted to be named for the story. Tom didn’t.

Guardian Unlimited has a story about Cillit Bang being caught playing dirty on the net, which is based on Tom C’s recent bad experiences with his blog comments being used by someone to promote the brand. However, alas, it doesn’t mention Tom by name – nor does it provide a link to his blog, despite lifting some of the comments in the story directly from it. While I think it’s perfectly fair to lift comments – lord know, I’ve done it myself a million times – you should always give credit where credit’s due.

Bad Guardian! Play nice on the Internets! Provide links!

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  • http://www.20six.co.uk/stuartbruce Stuart Bruce

    It’s not just about the playing nice on the internet, it’s about being nice full stop. My other pet irritation is media that quite happily use the results of PR-generated surveys but then fail to credit the source. If they are going to take advantage of free content the least they could do is help their readers (or listeners – the BBC is the worst) to find out more about the subject by saying where it comes from.

  • http://www.j-dom.org Jason Kitcat

    I don’t know if this is the case but couldn’t it be argued that they were saving Tom from embarrassment by further publicising his specifics? I mean the poor guy was feeling hurt about it all so perhaps in this case consideration was better than publicity… perhaps?

  • http://technovia.typepad.com Ian Betteridge

    Hmmm, given that Tom posted all the gory details on his (much read) blog, I don’t think he’s really embarrassed about it. More angry, I think.

  • http://allyoudo.blogspot.com/ nunobensen

    I’ve written to the journalist and the Guardian asking if they asked Tom whether or not he wanted a name check or not. Be interesting to see what happens.

  • nunobensen

    So I wrote to him and he’s got back to me saying Tom asked for his name not to be used.

  • http://www.guardian.co.uk Bobbie Johnson

    Hi chaps. Actually I spoke to Tom, who I count as a friend, at some length about this – and I acted on his wishes *not* to name him in the newspaper article. There weren’t any links because the piece was written for the newspaper and repurposed, but that’s now been fixed. I know it’s just a misunderstanding, but perhaps it would serve to practice what you preach and contact the people you’re writing about (as I did, and Jamie did subsequently). It’s not always about failing to give credit where it’s due, you know.

  • http://technovia.typepad.com Ian Betteridge

    Duly corrected. One suggestion, though, Bobbie: If you want people to contact you, perhaps having an email address on the story might be good?

  • http://www.guardian.co.uk Bobbie Johnson

    I would if I could, Ian. But that’s a wider policy decision which isn’t under my control.

  • http://technovia.typepad.com Ian Betteridge

    When I had to upwardly manage policy decisions, I always found that slamming my fist down on a desk and shouting worked. YMMV, of course…