Media: Why's Politico So Stingy With Crediting Others?

Here's just the latest (and perhaps smallest) example of the pattern over at Politico's education desk of not crediting other outlets/writers (me, in this case, but I'm not the only one) -- even when it's super obvious and easy:

Congrats to @molly_HC, @BuzzFeed's new biz of education reporter! Cool beat. Have fun.

— Libby Nelson (@libbyanelson) February 19, 2014

That's Politico's Libby Nelson giving a shout out to a newly-hired education reporter yesterday morning, right about the time that many others were doing the same thing.  The most likely reason: I had just posted the news about Holly's hire a few minutes beforehand (thanks to a tip from BuzzFeed). 

News outlets are notoriously bad at crediting others for material from others, though they risk losing credibility with readers know where stories first appeared. I've experienced and had related to me several instances where Politico's education team made it appear that they were breaking news that they'd obviously gotten elsewhere and re-reported. (I've also pitched blog posts and story ideas to them, and of course they link out to other outlets when they're not also working on the story for themselves.)

Even the notorious Valerie Strauss over at the Washington Post will link out to the outlet or person she got a story from (especially if she's reminded of the error), or add a credit. Politico's response to my reminder? Some angry emails from an editor and notification that Nelson was (re?)following me on Twitter. 

Comments

[Larry Ferlazzo]

Alexander,

The "notorious Valerie Strauss"?

Why has she earned that description?

Larry

[Alexander Russo]

notorious among journalists for not crediting the sources or inspirations for some of her pieces.

you may recall a few weeks ago this came up -- she readily added a link to me.