Perhaps nothing so exemplifies the transitional struggle into the information age as the love-hate triangle between news media corporations, reporters and personal web journaling.
Here’s a good example.
The Washington Times told its employee-reporters that they need management permission before they may “regularly contribute to an Internet blog, Web site, or other electronic billboard, posting service or message distribution system.”
The company said “most such requests will be granted” – as long as reporters agree to not publish anything concerning their job or The Washington Times itself.
And do it on their own time, of course.
What’s interesting is how a major daily newspaper – which had to know this ham-fistedly legaleezed memo would show up on the Internet -- acknowledges that the personal, after-hours opinions of its employee-reporters are a dangerous liability to its business.
“At a minimum,” the memo reads, “editorializing about a topic or person can reveal an employee's personal biases, if he or she has any; at worst, it could be used in a court of law to demonstrate a reporter or editor's predisposition, or even malicious intent, should someone bring a libel action against the newspaper for an unrelated story.”
