[Name Deleted]'s very thoughtful, and important response [19 Sep 95] to Lynne Schum's paper raises many questions which may appear to be new problems arising because of the nature and sudden popularity of the Internet. On reflection, however, most of [Name Deleted]'s concerns are as old as journalism, but simply dressed in new clothes.
I'm not quoting [Name Deleted]'s response back in the interests of space, and I assume that on ITForum we are capable of following lengthy threads.
Journalistic ethics (some call this an oxymoron) are taught in journalism courses and still practiced by a few newspapers, journals, radio, and TV stations. The values of accuracy, balance, and accountability are enshrined in the charters of news organizations. They are constantly ignored and abused, of course. A relevant example from the perspective of [Name Deleted]'s posting was the "outing" campaigns a few years ago in Britain, which were widely, and snidely, reported by the tabloid press. But as these whisperings had been reported in a "publication" they ceased to be slander (difficult to prosecute) and there was recourse to the law of libel. You may recall that Jason Donovan won a (admittedly hollow) victory at the Old Bailey.
On the Internet everyone is a journalist and few of us think much about the laws of libel and copyright as we Reply and Copy and Flame. (Do U.S. libel laws apply to a posting from Hong Kong? Is a posting on the Internet a "publication" in the legal sense?)
Wired Magazine reported a superficially amusing story last year of a "raid" by alt.tasteless on rec.pets.cats, posting disturbing (and very tasteless) cat anecdotes. It's worth reading, because it raises most of the issues which concern us here and shows how the surprisingly resilient rec.pets.cats crowd dealt with the problem.
Lynne Schrum's proposed guidelines can only be that. We subscribe to a listserv (or an alt. group) and we agree to be bound by its ethos. The problem occurs when the ethos of alt.bestiality slips over the boundary into ITForum.
As for the intrusive research assistant, she has been writing to me for years and I've sent most of her questionnaires to the round filing cabinet under my desk. It's much easier, and environmentally responsible, to deal with her ugly ascii forms using the "delete" key.