With the amount of busy time I have at the moment, it takes something to actually rouse me to blog. Jason Calacanis, who really should know better, manages it:
"Kudos to Sean Bonner for stepping in and standing up for Xeni (and bloggers breaking news everywhere) when Washington Post journo Brian Krebs cribbed her story WITHOUT CREDIT."
Except that Sean Bonner’s post and the comments that have followed have demonstrated that he was, in fact, pretty much completely wrong. My friend Quinn provides a timeline that shows that BoingBoing, Wired, and Brian Krebs were working on the same story pretty much at the same time. The original source has confirmed that everyone had the story legitimately and independently. As Quinn puts it:
"These three reporters are ethical people that have my respect and admiration, and I’ve been in touch with everyone giving them my point of view."
Sean Bonner, on the other hand, comes out looking like a complete idiot. Not only has he libelled Brian Krebs – accusing a reporter of plagerism is a very serious matter likely to affect their professional standing – but he’s continuing to stick to his guns in an incredibly weasel-ish way. Had Bonner simply apologised, I’d be giving him kudos for having done so. Instead, he’s still trying to tarnish the reputation of someone who clearly has done nothing wrong.
And this raises a larger point: If bloggers want to be taken as seriously as mainstream media, they need to hold each other to the same standards they demand of MSM, which includes criticising their own when they get it wrong and asking for apologies too. By congratulating Bonner for "calling out" (yuck, hideous Americanism) Krebs, Calacanis is making a foobar. He should know better than to shoot first and ask questions later.
