★ Linked: The AP reminds me that bloggers are not journalists

Here (link) is a PDF from The Associated Press outlining social media guidelines for their journalists. There are a few things that stood out:

First, trash-talking about anyone (or team or company or celebrity) reflects badly on staffers and the AP. Assume your tweet will be seen by the target of  your comment. The person ororganization you’re deriding may be one that an AP colleague is trying to develop as a source.

and

It is acceptable to extend and accept Facebook friend requests from sources, but we should try to avoid situations that may jeopardize AP’s reputation by giving the appearance of bias. Inparticular, since friending and “liking” political candidates or causes may create a perception that AP staffers are truly their advocates, staffers should avoid this practice unless they have a true reporting reason for it.

and

Don’t break news that we haven’t published, no matter the format.

and finally

If you come across photos, videos or other multimedia content that you would like to use in your news report, you must verify its authenticity. You must also determine who controls the copyright of the material and get permission from that person/organization to use it.

There are MANY more juicy tidbits here and each of these shows me that not a single blogger lives by these principles. They don’t have to and most times they shouldn’t but in those rare cases when Michael Arrington gets publicly smeared for being a “journalist with too many conflicts” I laugh because, aside from working his ass off and doing his best to verify everything that comes across his Inbox (back in the TechCrunch days), he doesn’t embody the online social behaviors that most journalists are expected to uphold.

Think about all of the bloggers in technology who are Facebook friends with nearly every one of their sources and cover startups who are started by people these bloggers hang out with every other night. Consider all of the tips that come from “friends” that bloggers don’t fact check because, “It’s my buddy Jim who started this company” and the AP not only frowns upon tips via social media but enforces that journalists fact-check and vet all sources no matter how much of a friend they are.

Bloggers will argue that these policies don’t equal integrity or honesty from journalists but I dare any blog out there to run their operation in this manner if they can. I bet the quality of content and accuracy of reporting would go up 10x.