Acting Like a Reporter Without All That Messy Ethical Stuff

Daniel Cavanagh is a Brooklyn blogger who has taken on the noble challenge of covering a small, isolated community that really doesn't want to be covered. He exposed a charity organization's illegal dumping and an annual Halloween activity that has neighborhood kids throwing eggs, potatoes, rocks and shaving cream cans at buses, cars and any random people strolling by.

This is important news gathering and shows how the power of the Internet allows anyone with a computer to cover communities that don't have local coverage -- just don't call it reporting. At least according to Cavanagh:

"I did not identify myself as anything because I didn’t, and still don’t, classify myself really as anything."

Which of course makes things so much easier when you're reporting on an event. No need to get the other side. People will talk to you, despite the fact that they don't know you could be posting what they said. Some people, including me, would call that unethical behavior by a person who is acting very much like a reporter.

Others, like Jeff Jarvis, say, eh, the rules of journalism don't apply. "He's just a member of the community who's writing about his community."