Earlier this evening, the Associated Press ran a clarification to their story about Rep. Jim Ryun and his house purchase from the now-defunct U.S. Family Network.
“The Associated Press,” they wrote, “should have credited the blog TPMmuckraker.com, which first reported the sale.”
The reporting in question was by TPMmuckraker.com’s Paul Kiel.
That was classy and we appreciate it.
We’re in a period of often uncomfortable flux in the news business. And as the containers into which the news is poured and the structure of the industry itself both change, it’s understandable that stuff like this happens. My point in flagging this yesterday was not to zing the particular reporter or news organization. I’m not in this business to rack up ‘as first reported by’ lines. But reporters and news outlets that do solid, enterprise journalism should be credited for their work. And we shouldn’t lose sight of that even as the formats we write in change.
