Richard Koman at ZDnet published a blog post late last night that amply demonstrates nearly everything that's right and wrong about Web journalism.
Using information he received from an Iranian blogger, Koman accused Yahoo of handing over the account information for 200,000 Iranian bloggers to the country's authorities -- an act not unlike handing a list of synagogue members over to the Nazis -- in exchange for the Iranian government lifting its ban on Yahoo access.
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That's an incredibly serious allegation, one I'd suspect a reputable newspaper would not have published without some kind of second- or third-party corroboration, as well as a response from Yahoo. But this is the blogosphere, where the normal rules no longer seem to apply.
It gets worse. What Koman phrased as a question ("Did Yahoo provide Iran with names of 200,000 users?") became "Exclusive! Yahoo Provided Iran With Names of 200,000 Users" on Digg, Techmeme, and elsewhere. Whether that was ZDnet's doing or some overeager Digger, I don't know. But that often happens with stories like this.
(Repeating accusations is virtually the same as making them, even if you phrase it as a question. So for the record: I'm not saying Yahoo did anything remotely like this. At this point, we don't know. And my gut tells me the whole story is BS. )
Yahoo's initial response nearly 12 hours later was a lone tweet:
The ZDnet allegations are false. No Yahoo! representative met w/ any Iranian officials or disclosed user data to Iranian gov't.
As I was writing this, ZDnet updated the post to include Yahoo's more formal denial:
The allegations in the story are false. Neither Yahoo! nor any Yahoo! representative has met with or communicated with any Iranian officials, and Yahoo! has not disclosed user data to the Iranian government. Yahoo! was founded on the principle that access to information and communications tools can improve people's lives, and Yahoo! is committed to protecting and promoting freedom of expression and privacy. To learn more about our human rights efforts, please visit: http://humanrights.yahoo.com.
So: Either Yahoo is lying or Koman got some bad information. I'm no great fan of faceless corporations, and lord knows Yahoo has been guilty of handing over information to repressive regimes in the past, but I'm going with Yahoo here. That story just seems too over the top -- and the sources too vague and self interested -- to be believable.
Here's usually where blogger/bloviators like Jeff Jarvis like to step in, puff themselves up, and talk about what they call "process journalism." You report a rumor or an unsubstantiated claim as soon as you can, then update it as more information comes in. If the rumor ends up being false, eventually that becomes part of the story too. The process of reporting becomes as public as the story itself. Sounds good, right?
(For a slightly different take on process journalism in action, see "Steve Jobs Arrested For Shoplifting.")
Of course, when the rumor turns out to be complete BS, the damage has already been done. As the old saying goes, you can't unring a bell. In the 12 hours between the allegation appearing and Yahoo's denial, the story spread. Some people will only see that Digg headline and not Yahoo's denial. It will become a "fact" inside their head that's unlikely to ever be dislodged.
[Update #1: At 5 pm last Friday, ZDnet editor el jefe Larry Dignan officially retracted the story, for the same reasons I noted above -- the lack of any corroboration from a disinterested source. That was the right thing to do.]
[Update #2: According to TechCrunch's Paul Carr, Dignan just happened to be spending that day at a Yahoo press event. I hope he had someone tasting his food.]
And
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