Bloggers’ role in reporting the cartoon controversy

Posted by Martin Stabe on 10 February 2006 at 16:03
Tags: BBC, Blogs, Muhammad cartoons

BBC News Online world affairs correspondent Paul Reynolds says bloggers have become a valuable source of information for him.

For example, Reynolds writes in a column posted today, a blog called Neandernews tracked down the origin of a fake cartoon that helped fuel the Muhammad cartoon conflagration. It turns out the image was a photocopy of an Associated Press photograph taken at a French pig squealing competition (sic). The AP is now protesting this illegitimate use of its material.

Reynolds also credits the conservative American web site WorldNetDaily with discovering that the Danish cartoons were published in an Egyptian newspaper last October, without raising the sort of storm we have seeen over the past fortnight.

What is really important in Reynolds’ column is his advice for journalists about how to deal with the barrage of criticism that emanates from some blogs.
Reynolds writes: “I have taken to intervening in some of these sites if and when I am personally criticised and sometimes to defend the BBC in a general way. Otherwise the comments go unanswered. I found that one rapidly develops a very thick skin and I can now understand how politicians can cope with criticism.”

Using the bloggers’ derisory abbreviation for the Mainstream Media, Reynolds says:

If the MSM does not respond, it will suffer. The same is even truer of businesses, whose products can be disastrously damaged by web-based attacks.

If the criticism is fair it must be answered, directly to those making it. Remote, computer-generated responses are counter-productive.

And mistakes must be quickly corrected. If the criticism is unfair, then the MSM has to know about it early on and develop defensive tactics.

Richard Sambrook, head of the BBC World Service and Global News Division (who runs a blog himself) accepts that the BBC needs to do more.

“The BBC should proactively engage with bloggers. This is a new issue for us. Some departments look at blogs, though haphazardly. But it pays dividends. The BBC is a huge impersonal organisation. It needs to come out from under its rock,” he says.

As for using blogs as a source he says: “The key is careful attribution. It would be a big mistake for the MSM to try to match the blogs, but they can teach us lessons about openness and honesty. The MSM should concentrate on what it can do - explain, analyse and verify.”

Tags: BBC, Blogs, Muhammad cartoons