Sure, Ian Murphy, the editor of the Buffalo Beast, got some interesting information out of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. The problem is most journalism organizations don’t qualify prank calls as a method of gaining information. Murphy’s call wasn’t exactly the grown-up version of “Is your refrigerator running?” He impersonated one of the governor’s top financial supporters, billionaire David Koch. From his 20-minute conversation, he fished out information on how Gov. Walker was planning to bring the Democrats back into the state.
We’re seeing sleaze on both sides here.
Obviously, Gov. Walker’s discussion on planting troublemakers and distracting the opposing party as he tries to pass a law against collective bargaining shows his underhanded side. At the same time, however, we have a journalist who impersonated someone else and recorded the conversation to put online. We understand Murphy’s desire to see if the governor would respond to a call from a supporter when he wasn’t answering the phone for Democrats, but we draw the line at impersonation. So does the Society of Professional Journalists. Unfortunately, in a world where blogging overlaps with what traditionally is defined as journalism, we’re going to see more of these debates arising: Bloggers are becoming journalism vigilantes as they seek to accomplish the same goals but don’t abide by the established rules, but do the ends justify the means?
