Writers and Editors

Coalition of the Shilling (Nathan Hodge, The Nation, 3-11-10). Nonpartisan think tanks are supporting journalism--but who's supporting the think tanks?

Fabrication. The First Peril:Fabrication (Chip Scanlan, Poynter Online)

FTC Tells Amateur Bloggers to Disclose Freebies or Be Fined (Ryan Singel, Wired, 10-5-09, pointing out some gaps and weaknesses in the rules) and here are the FTC Guidelines on the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. Here's an earlier story: FTC to go after blogger freebies (Caroline McCarthy, CNet News, 6-22-09)

Ghostwriting. See also Medical Ghostwriting, below.

Historian Orlando Figes agrees to pay damages for fake reviews on Amazon (Alexandra Topping, Guardian, 7-16-10). Historian to pay damages and costs to two rivals who launched a libel case after he posted reviews "praising his own work and rubbishing that of his rivals."

Keep libel courts out of science: British Chiropractic Association v Simon Singh
The British Chiropractic Association brought a libel case against science writer Simon Singh at the Royal Courts of Justice in London for his criticism of chiropractic procedures in the book Trick or Treatment: The Undeniable Facts About Alternative Medicine and in a Guardian article, "Beware the Spinal Trap" (now removed from the Guardian site, but available through a link in this article on Lay Scientist: Simon Singh vs. British Chiropractic Association . Legal blogger Jack of Kent is following the case, providing expert analysis, and posting updates through his Twitter feed @​JackOfKent. Click here to read and/​or sign the Sense About Science petition stating: "The law has no place in scientific disputes:
We the undersigned believe that it is inappropriate to use the English libel laws to silence critical discussion of medical practice and scientific evidence."

Liability insurance, or media liability insurance. WriteInsure media perils insurance, available through Axis Pro. The Authors Guild has entered into an agreement with Axis Pro, the world's leading underwriter of media liability insurance, to offer Guild members professional liability insurance. Coverage is available under WriteInsure for book authorship, freelance writing and blogging. I don't think you have to be a member of AG to get it; I don't know if the cost or terms are different if you buy it individually. If anyone else does, or if other writers organizations are also making it available, please let me know!

Libel Law. Is truth an absolute defense against libel? Read these stories: Think you know libel law? Think Again (Robert J. Abrogi, Media Law, on Noonan vs. Staples)

Libel must be rebalanced in the scales of justice. Lord Anthony Lester, Times Online, 5-24-10, on the need to reform England's outdated and unfair libel laws ("Our present laws have a chilling impact on free speech — the lifeblood of democracy"). Here are Simon Singh's views on the subject:Reform of our libel law is long overdue (Telegraph,5-25-10)

Medical ghostwriting. On this topic check out Medical Papers by Ghostwriters Pushed Therapy (Natasha Singer, NY Times, 8-4-2009), What Should Be Done To Tackle Ghostwriting in the Medical Literature? (a debate about medical ghostwriting on PLoS Medicine, with Peter C. Gřtzsche, Jerome P. Kassirer, Karen L. Woolley, Elizabeth Wager, Adam Jacobs, Art Gertel, Cindy Hamilton), Ghostwriting(Derek Lowe, In the Pipeline, a short entry followed by an intelligent discussion with readers), Ghostwriting and the Medical Writer (Cynthia Haggard, American Medical Writers Association), New strategies to tackle medical ghostwriting are debated (Science News), and Ghost Management: How Much of the Medical Literature Is Shaped Behind the Scenes by the Pharmaceutical Industry? (Sergio Sismondo, PLoS). Finally: AMWA code of ethics.

Plagiarism:
• Combating Plagiarism: Is the Internet causing more students to copy? (PDF of thoughtful long article, with bibliography, from CQ Researcher
• The Counter-Plagiarism Handbook (Craig Silverman's Tips for writers and editors on how to avoid or detect journalistic plagiarism, CJR Regret the Error, 2-26-10)
• Getting to the Source: Preventing Plagiarism (Chip Scanlan, Poynter, 9-19-03)
• Historians Rewrite History. Timothy Noah (Slate, 11-13-03) on the campaign to exonerate Doris Kearns Goodwin
• Plagiarism and Precedence: Media Ethics (Edward Wasserman, 10-9-06)
• Plagiarism, the Latest -Gate (Megan Garber, CJR, 2-19-08)
• Plagiarism Pays (Reed Irvine and Cliff Kincaid, Accuracy in Media, on offenders who make a comeback)
• The Posner Plagiarism Perplex. Jack Shafer (Slate 2-11-10) on what to make of Gerald Posner's blog statement.
• To Catch a Plagiarist (Craig Silverman, Regret the Error, CJR, 2-19-10). There are tools to catch plagiarists in action. Why don't news outlets use them?
• What Did Ian McEwan Do? (Jack Shafer, Slate, criticizes big-time novelists for saying 'Nothing wrong.')
I was unable to find a link to Trudy Lieberman's oft-cited long 1995 piece on plagiarism in the Columbia Journalism Review. Look for it in a good library – or, Dear CJR, please make it available online and tell me where to find it!

PRIVACY. Google Says It Collected Private Data by Mistake (Brad Stone, NY Times, 5-14-10, about Google's answers to questions from regulators in Europe about Street View).

Privacy. Scroogle, an ad-free Google search proxy that prevents the searcher's data being stored by Google (as explained on Technically Speaking Radio.

Radio Host Has Drug Company Ties ran the headline on Gardiner Harris's story about Frederick K. Goodwin, "the latest in a series of doctors and researchers whose ties to drugmakers have been uncovered by Senator Charles E. Grassley. Goodwin, a former director of the NIMH and host of the popular public radio program “The Infinite Mind,” earned at least $1.3 million from 2000 to 2007 giving marketing lectures for drugmakers. The program's producer was unaware of the fees, report PR Watch.org and PR Web.

Right to Know Committee, the Association of Health Care Journalists' page of links. AHCJ is particularly concerned about health care organizations that restrict access to information about research simply because they want to control the news (often doing so in the name of HIPAA).

Watching the Media Watchdogs (Greg Mitchell, The Nation, 3-15-10). Highlighting the best and worst of current media (print, digital, and broadcast) several times a day. Twitterfeed: @​MediaFixBlog

Will the Times Fire a Harvard Prof. Who Broke Their Freelancer Rules? (Gawker, 12-27-09) and Will The New York Times Wrist-Slap Another Freelancer, A Harvard Professor? (Caitlin Kelly, True/​Slant, 12-28-09)