Content, New Media - Saturday, February 6, 2010 0:03 - 0 Comments

Not Exactly the 4th Estate

A TechCrunch intern( under the age of 18) was found to have accepted a MacBook Air in exchange for a blog post – He got fired.

Here’s TechCrunch founder and co-editor Michael Arrington, “On Monday evening I received a phone call from someone I trust who told me that one of our interns had asked for compensation in exchange for a blog post. Specifically, this intern had allegedly asked for a Macbook Air in exchange for a post about a startup.”

1.  I’m stunned that TechCrunch, one of the most influential and widely read blogs in the world would allow someone so young to create content for the site.

2.  I’m glad they fired him and deleted his content.

3.  One of the comments tips you off  to the fired intern’s  identity but he’s a minor so I’ll let you figure it out on your own.

4.  Another commentor links to an insightful article by Mark Cuban who breaks down the legality of “unpaid” internships. (tl;dr they’re illegal if your work benefits the company in any way).

5.  I’m now much more skeptical of some blog content. If there is more than one author on a blog site, I want to be directed to the bio of the author when I click on the author’s name, not to a list of all their other blog posts.  Seeking Alpha is one example of a good author link (for full disclosure I am a contributor to that site).

When I interview Don Carli about sustainability in news media a while back we had the following exchange, which is relevant.

RI- Will people still care where they get their news from?

DC- I don’t think people care so much about where their news comes from, but journalism… yes I believe they still care. Anyone can make news and anyone can report it, but journalism is different and that difference matters. For example, Twitter is fast becoming one the most important source of breaking news, but it isn’t journalism. I think a robust Fourth Estate capable of independent investigative journalism is essential. The first tenet of sustainability is having a political system that secures effective participation of its citizens in decision making. That is the role served by journalists and the media channels that deliver and store their content. …full article

Anyone can make news. ps i could use a new car ; )