News gathering in the 21st Century? A case study

Annie Sweeney and Fran Spielman report in this morning's Chicago Sun-Times about the arrest of a CTA customer service representative. The employee is charged with "stealing credit card numbers from four CTA customers, some of whom were purchasing fare cards or updating fare cards," according to the newspaper story.

I was looking for the story this morning in the paper -- because I'd read about it yesterday on line. Second City Cop, a highly unofficial blog by one or more anonymous Chicago police officers that I've only recently discovered, featured the story yesterday, adding alleged details about events following the arrest (if you compare the links) that the Sun-Times did not report.

And SCC complains, this morning, that the juicy post-arrest details weren't reported by what the blog derides as the "dead tree media."

But reporting those allegations would have been entirely inappropriate -- unless and until they could be verified. It is not sufficient for a newspaper to rely solely on an anonymous tip to an anonymous blogger. SCC complains this morning that it is "good enough to use as a source when it's just some 22 year old moron using her job to rip off CTA customers. But when the heavy lifting of investigative work comes along that might embarrass the mayor or his people, we're just a rumor mill."

But that's not what happened. Yes, someone at the newspaper read or was tipped about the post. But the paper didn't rely on the blog for the story about the arrest either: The arrest could be verified. The allegations of station-house shenanigans that SCC also reported would not have been so easy to confirm. So today's story could only be about the arrest. Who knows what tomorrow's paper may bring?

In the meantime, what an illustration of the power of blogging: From blog comment, to post, to page 3 of a major Chicago daily in just a day or two.

Of course, at some point, the powers that be will try and land on SCC with hob-nailed boots. But this is not Myanmar, or even China. If this site is suppressed, other sites will surely burble up and the press is right to review these sites for the story tips they will most assuredly provide. The way news is gathered, and the way we read and understand the news, really is changing.