Journalism isn’t a science, but it’s the setting for a grand experiment. The hypothesis: that you can dismantle the venerable institutions of journalism while preserving the accountability and integrity they represent.

Well, that hypothesis hasn’t been faring so well lately. In the past couple weeks, three online news organizations have illustrated different but related dangers of practicing high-impact journalism without the safeguards of a traditional newsroom.

Over the weekend, the Business Insider reported that New York Gov. David Paterson was hours away from resigning in response to a bombshell story that The New York Times was about to publish. But the story has yet to appear, and Paterson remains very much in office.

This week, an established investigative reporter for The Daily Beast, Gerald Posner, was suspended and then resigned after multiple instances in which he had plagiarized his reporting had come to light.

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Filed under: Guild News