The Debate Over Ethics Codes and the Blogosphere

When a scandal breaks at a newspaper or a magazine, editors often revise their ethics codes as a form of damage control. It's a relatively easy way to both save face, and assure lightning doesn't strike twice.

But what about blogs?

Most blogs are independent from the mainstream media. Many blog writers wouldn't have it any other way. That doesn't mean that some bloggers don't covet and court the respect and readers of traditional media.

But with over 58 million blogs, and nearly two more created every second, according to Technorati.com, the "blogosphere" isn't scandal-free.

Last September, The New Republic suspended editor and blogger Lee Siegel, after discovering he was commenting on his own work under a pseudonym, and attacking other readers.

In March, conservative blogger Ben Domenech resigned just three days after he began writing for the Washington Post. Other bloggers discovered that he had plagiarized part of a movie review he wrote for National Review Online. There were also allegations that his earlier writing in the College of William & Mary's student newspaper contained instances of plagiarism as well.

Clearly, the blogosphere is not without scandal. So don't blogs need some agreed-upon code of ethics to gain and retain public trust?

Not according to Lee Papa, the man behind popular political blog Rude Pundit ( www.rudepundit.blogspot.com ).

"What accomplishes anything like a "code of ethics" is the self-monitoring, self-corrective nature of the blogosphere." wrote Papa in a recent email. "People like Domenech and Siegel are outed quickly because the nature of the blog world is to seek truth and keep people honest."

Papa opposes placing something as traditional as ethics codes upon something as non-traditional as blogs.

"The idea of attempting to apply the same paradigm of standards to [blogs] will necessarily fail," wrote Papa, "because, unlike newspapers and academic writings, blogging is not static. I can go back and correct something I wrote two years ago and make it seem like it was always that way."

For Papa, self-policing is the only way blogs can maintain order amongst their own.