The fallout that ensued was tremendous. A few web-only writers went after Gawker, but even more argued that at least Gawker gave credit, whereas newspapers, television stations, and other old media frequently don't when they re-report a story.

Well, CNN recently did to criminal justice reporter Radley Balko, who lives in Northern Virginia, what Gawker supposedly did to Shapira, except it failed to give any credit where much credit was due.

As Techdirt wrote early this morning, Balko (who I worked with at Reason) has spent several years reporting on Steven Hayne, the Mississippi medical examiner whose shoddy work has led to the incarceration of several known innocents. Over the last three years, Balko has cultivated sources, reads hundreds–if not thousands–of pages of documentation incriminating Hayne, and, as a result, has broken every single piece of major news about the medical examiner.

But you wouldn't know any of that if all you had for reference was the AC360 special about Hayne, which piggy-backs almost exclusively on Balko's reporting without every hat-tipping or acknowledging his work. (Techdirt reported that "sources quoted by CNN told Balko that CNN claims it found them via his articles.")

In a post at his site The Agitator, Balko writes

I guess the important thing here is that CNN is giving the Steven Hayne story national attention.

That’s great.

And I guess I shouldn’t dwell too much on the fact that CNN piggybacked on my three years of reporting without giving me even the slightest acknowledgment. Journalists who have been in the game far longer than I tell me this kind of thing happens all the time. Bigger outlets don’t really feel obligated to credit smaller ones for breaking stories.

Most bloggers and reporters, old media and new, have made the same point: Piggy-backing happens a lot, it's how news dissemination works, and it shouldn't be looked down on if it's done right. But few people, especially in old media, are willing to concede that when a story moves upward, from web to print, or from small outlet to national outlet, the big dogs don't feel the need to reciprocate credit.

This is especially egregious when a story blows up in the hands of a larger outlet, because there's an opportunity to easily boost a smaller paper's profile with a hat-tip. The Wall Street Journal could (and should) have done this in August of last year, when it piggybacked on months of reporting by the Brownsville Herald on a story about Mexican-Americans being denied citizenship because they were delivered by midwives instead of in obstetric wards.

In an email, Balko elaborated on CNN's failure to credit his reporting:

"With my story, it wasn't just CNN. The Gannet-owned Jackson Clarion-Ledger has run with two of my big scoops about Dr. Hayne in just the last six months. Neither acknowleded I broke the original story. Here you have a paper with a fairly large staff and budget continually getting scooped on a story that's beeing going on in its own backyard for 20 years by a journalist with a small magazine who lives 600 miles away. Seems to me that's a good indication that the traditional media's problems go well beyond having their content excerpted by blogs and websites."

UPDATE: A savvy reader points out that CNN closed the comments on the ANC360 Hayne article immediately after this post pinged back in the comments section:

• Charles Homans reported on the death of local conservative web venture Culture 11 for Washington Monthly. Homans' initial impression is spot-on, and one that conservative sites, by their prudish nature, can't help but cultivate: "On its surface, the softly launched beta (test) version of Culture11 hewed closely to the original vision, down to its Slateish design. Poking around the site was a bit like wandering into the Christian rock section of a record store: the bands were recognizably bands, with electric guitars and vaguely countercultural clothing, but there was something … different about them, the musicians just a little too healthy looking to be real rock stars." I tossed my two cents on conservative culture writing into murky waters a few months back. David Sessions at Patrol has a great response to Homans' piece, in which Culture 11's Joe Carter makes a CONSERVATIVES GONE WILD appearance in the comments.
• You know how all those political types have been frothing at the mouth about the AIG bonuses/Wall Street sodomizing Main Street/Etc.? WCP alumnus Dave Jamieson calls them on their bullshit in a fantastic TNR piece: "Last week, lawmakers dashed to the podiums of Capitol Hill to condemn AIG and the rest of those bonus-loving scoundrels on Wall Street. But not long before that, some of those same members had been dashing to fundraisers with the very financial bogeymen they were now skewering." Charlie Rangel? Crook. Chris Dodd? Douche hat. Carolyn Maloney? into Wall Street for big bucks. Don't trust a one of 'em.
• Why does William Saletan talk about Lady Parts all the time? Because they matter: "The reason I keep you posted on developments in IVF, surrogates, and embryo screening is that they're transforming the debate. They're changing the conditions on which our moral positions rely. Were you pro-choice because the embryo was in a woman? Now we have embryos in dishes. Did you support embryo screening for fatal diseases? Now we're talking about screening embryos for eye color. Does the value of an embryo depend on what its mother thinks? Now we have embryos with two mothers: a genetic one and a gestational one. Should they at least consult each other?"

That's it for me, folks. Enjoy your weekend.

Gawker published an e-mail conversation I had recently with a cordial Atlantic staffer. I forwarded the e-mail and my brusque commentary to vent about the the shittiness of unpaid internships. Sure, there are plenty of publications that staff armies of unpaid coffee-getters and google taskers, but this one struck a particular chord of indignation: The Digital Media Internship.

An unpaid position, Atlantic Media Company's spring 2009 Digital Media Internships offer high achieving college juniors, seniors, and recent graduates of all ages a unique opportunity to be involved in the creation and launch of new digital media products leveraging the power of The Atlantic magazine brand.

"High achieving"? Hmm...I guess they'll need some incentive to keep coming back. Achievement is key!

Oops! Looks like this page is outdated:

Interns are paid at a rate of $10.00/hour. Although we are flexible regarding school and other part-time work requirements, interns are expected to commit to 32-40 hoursweek on a consistent schedule. College credit will be awarded if desired.

The original description continues:

Digital Media Internships are unpaid. We are flexible regarding school and other part-time work requirements, but we expect interns to work at least 40 hours a week, on a consistent schedule. In addition, should your university allow it, we would be pleased to have students use the internship for college credit.

"Flexible"? My google calendar tells me that full semester course load + 40 hours = not flexible at all.

I know that newsrooms are crunching, staffers are getting laid off, and that it's just a dreadful moment to be pursuing journalism, but at what point do internships with august publications become, frankly, exploitative?

Side note: Several publications have separate internship programs for minority representation—fair enough. But how about separate programs for college students who aren't endowed with parental checkbooks and who, gasp, pay for their own rent? Please, pay me for my services!

(Full disclosure: This internship is unpaid.)

The Post's J. Freedom du Lac wrote about the Jonas Brothers yesterday and called Kevin Jonas "the other one." He (or, more accurately, his e-mail inbox) was then set upon by furious Jonas fans, who have told him in no uncertain terms to stop being so old and bald and mean.

Today, Style fronted a piece about the fans' reaction, reprinting several letters. This has allowed several bloggers, including this one, to get posts out of the whole sitch.

Via instant message, du Lac (a friend, FWIW) says he's gotten "about 50" e-mails from furious Jonasites, "not really a huge number, but ... enough!" And as to jokes about his byline—Gawker's Richard Lawson said "(srsly?)" after citing him—du Lac says, "Glad the writer noticed my name. I'd hate to be 'the other one' of the Style staff."