Klepto Journo Reactions -

The battle is heating up between
The Miami Herald and The Huffington Post . . .

But what is this all about?

Bill Cooke, who blogged the original allegations
of impropriety, is primarily a photographer.

Mathew Ingram has reacted with
a sophmoric "you just don't get it!"

I'm afraid we do get it. We've been around this block already once or twice in recent years. There was a bitter conflict about this issue up in Boston recently, for example.

"these accusations are nonsense"

This is really a rather more complex situation than Mr Ingram espouses. One could emerge from a legal scrutiny process technically blameless and yet not smelling like roses in the eyes of the public.

Indeed, something like this just happened to Jim Romenesko. He didn't do anything wrong, but his employers tried to give him the appearance of that. Why?

Maybe they had a Pre-Nup with him and were looking for an excuse to wriggle out of it. There is often more to these situations than at first meets the eye.

Bloggers should try to become familiar
with the basic ground rules of Fair Usage.
And then, try to follow them in good faith.

How did this Puff Toast vs Miami Herald Incident start? The photographer Cooke may have felt that his livelihood was being threatened by The Puff Toast because its new existence could adversely impact The Miami Herald which may be a source of income for Cooke.

The edge here is to MClatchy, parent company of the Herald, because McClatchy is run by Gary Pruitt who was originally the company's FA lawyer. But Pruitt is not going to do anything rash.

People need to take the opportunity to discuss their differences and then try to work them out. Most of the rest of us really don't have the time to get deeply involved in these matters.

:: GigaOm ::

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