When Craig Silverman spoke to our class today his discussion on crowdsourcing struck a chord, especially when he mentioned the controversy surrounding Tim Goeglein.
And so I Googled Goeglein...
Tim Goeglein, a White House Aide and Fort Wayne News Sentinel columnist was ousted by Nancy Nall in a blog post when she accused him of plagiarism. However, with the advent of citizen journalism, crowdsourcing, and the technology of the internet, Nall received hundreds of posts by average people further exposing Goeglein as a fraud.
While I applaud Nall and others who contributed to Goeglein's demise, I cant help but wonder why his editors never fact-checked or caught-wind of the fact that he was a cheat. Is that not their job?
Editors of the Sentinel have come to the defense. Leo Morris, an editor there says, "It’s impossible to discover every instance of plagiarism before it hits print; that would just be too time-consuming and labor-intensive". Nall however, admits that it was only a 30-second Web search that in turn produced hard evidence.
Too time consuming? I'm sure!
And so I Googled Goeglein...
Tim Goeglein, a White House Aide and Fort Wayne News Sentinel columnist was ousted by Nancy Nall in a blog post when she accused him of plagiarism. However, with the advent of citizen journalism, crowdsourcing, and the technology of the internet, Nall received hundreds of posts by average people further exposing Goeglein as a fraud.
While I applaud Nall and others who contributed to Goeglein's demise, I cant help but wonder why his editors never fact-checked or caught-wind of the fact that he was a cheat. Is that not their job?
Editors of the Sentinel have come to the defense. Leo Morris, an editor there says, "It’s impossible to discover every instance of plagiarism before it hits print; that would just be too time-consuming and labor-intensive". Nall however, admits that it was only a 30-second Web search that in turn produced hard evidence.
Too time consuming? I'm sure!
I wonder though, is this a new trend? Will crowdscorcing produce a new movement and continue to expose faults, innaccuracies, and oversights in mainstream media? And if so, what is the next step and what will newspapers and other publications do to ensure public trust?
I guess the next logical Question is, who is next?
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