Should Reporters Have Private Blogs? Sure.
Burned by the media in the past, Mark Cuban is extremely careful about how he deals with reporters.
Most of its interviews are done by e-mail so he has a transcript of exactly what was said. It’s Cuban’s way of managing media relations, and it has worked well for him.
Cuban, however, doesn’t seem to understand that he can’t control every aspect of interactions with journalists. He’s upset because he agreed to do a “real” interview for a magazine (apparently GQ), only to have the reporter blog about the interview the reporter’s private blog.
Cuban suggests it was unethical for the journalist to have done that because the journalist never asked permission or told Cuban he was going do it.
Mark, you’re off the mark here.
As much as you want to shape you messaging, the journalist did nothing wrong other than blow up a relationship for a blog post. Maybe he should have told you but for a journalist to write on a private blog about something interesting that happened in their life is how things work these days. I mean, how far are you willing to limit reporters - no radio interviews about meeting you? No talking to people about you at dinner parties?
Unless there are rules that prohibit this kind of extra-curricular activity (i.e. reporters can’t write private blogs about the beats they cover), this kind of thing is going to happen on a regular basis.
For many journalists who do have private blogs, there is a fine balance between producing for your employer and producing for your blog. But long as you’re making your employer happy, then blogging on your own time is perfectly alright if you operate in a professional way and aren’t actively trying to generate revenue from it.
I’m sure the next time you do an interview, the rules will be even more detailed what a reporter can’t and can do. That’s your prerogative.
Technorati Tags: Mark Cuban
January 26th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Mark, I have a different take on this situation.
First, the journalist, Will Leitch, wrote the blog post about Cuban at Valleywag as a sort of guest post, not at his own blog. I’m not that familiar with Valleywag, but I doubt it could be considered Leitch’s private blog, despite his affiliation with Deadspin.
Second, the post wasn’t centered around the fact that Leitch interviewed Cuban, it was centered around Leitch’s opinion that Cuban would never stand a chance of being able to buy a Major League Baseball team (at least that’s my take on Leitch’s post.)
I would say that Cuban would be more angry about the implication that he couldn’t join an old boys club than the fact that the report chose to wrote a blog post about him without asking. I wager that Cuban might be using this so-called betrayal of trust as an excuse. I doubt Cuban would have complained if Leitch’s blog post was more charitable.
In principle, I don’t think there’s an issue with a journalist commenting on their own work in their own private sandbox. I just don’t think this scenario was a good example of that.