Blogger Gets Ripped Off by Newspaper, Gets Satisfaction on Video

18 May, 2012 by Warner Todd Huston

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Duane Lester of AllAmericanBlogger recently wrote an excellent expose about some financial troubles in the Holt County, Missouri Sheriff’s office. It was so well received that the Oregon Observer, a small paper in Missouri, wanted to cover the story, too. So, what did the paper do…?

Why the paper stole Duane’s entire post and printed it in its paper, grammatical errors and all. Worse, they never bothered to mention where the article came from or who wrote it.

That’s right, the Oregon Observer just stole the whole thing neither paying Duane for his work nor even giving him a proper byline.

So, Duane took his video camera in and asked them what’s the deal with that…

I love it. Got paid, too! Excellent work, Duane.

My favorite was the condescension that this tiny one-room newspaper owner had for bloggers! The guy’s main employee is his elderly mother, fer cripes sakes. The New York Times he ain’t! It makes me wonder if he’s newspapering from his mother’s basement?

Now if only he could get talk radio guys to stop steal us blogger’s work without attribution! Way to go, Duane!

But seriously, this incident shows the growing power of blogs in that this newspaper, as Podunk as it is, saw the professionalism in the original posting and noticed that many voices in the country were talking about the story. This small paper’s owner, himself a long-time journalist, understood the value and the “real” journalism in Duane’s report.

Further, it shows that bloggers must stand up for themselves because if they don’t all those “real” journalists will simply steal blogger’s work and present it as their own.