There’s an interesting story emerging on Digg with regards to Engadget and their acknowledging of sources of stories. The controversy is around this story at dapreview.net.
Whether Engadget are at fault or not I’m not in a position to say – but the story is an important one for bloggers to consider when they are bouncing off what others are writing.
I know that this can be a real challenge for many popular blogs which get pitched ideas all day. Problems often arise when a story appears in multiple places at once, all using the same pictures and information. I would imagine that Engadget get many emails notifying them of each story – each one is after one thing, simply to get the link as the source which guarantees traffic and Google Juice. This would be complicated by the blog being a multi-author blog.
Of course this doesn’t give an excuse for unethical blogging and they have a responsibility to check and acknowledge sources like any other blog.
I’ll be interested to see how and if Engadget respond to the criticism as the story is gaining real momentum at Digg (652 diggs at present and rising quickly).
update: Ryan Block, managing editor of Engadget, has added an apology to the post in question.
