The Game Is Sort Of Over
In an amazing inversion of the logic of ‘hot news’ — where the major news outlets want to be able to claim a blackout period during which no one else can report of news they have uncovered — the major news outlets stole the Rolling Stone article about McCrystal and published the PDF in its entirety, breaking copyright and ‘hot news’ principles. The perps included Time and Politico.
David Carr undoes them:
Media organizations can file all the briefs they want about protecting their work product from free-riders and insurgent hordes of digital pilot fish, but once they break their own rules and start feeding on one another, the game is sort of over.
Yes, the game is sort of over.
The Google/Twitter brief in the Theflyonthewall case, where the ‘hot news’ concept is being fought includes this observation:
The modern ubiquity of multiple news platforms renders ‘hot news’ misappropriation an anachronism, aimed at muzzling all but the most powerful media companies. In a world of citizen journalists and commentators, online news organizations, and broadcasters who compete 24 hours a day, news can no longer be contained for any meaningful amount of time.
It seems that the actions of Time and Politico lend support to this, although they went way too far by posting the article in its entirety.
- Content Takes a Ride on the Web (fool.com)
- ‘The imperatives of the news cycle’: A licence to steal? (blogs.journalism.co.uk)
- Was if Fair to Steal Content From Rolling Stone? (anamericanlion.posterous.com)
