Most of these strange results are quite amusing, or just gently misleading. Such as the main headline referring to one football team proclaiming “We wuz robbed” next to a picture of a player from the opposition.

A bit more disturbing is the tendency for stories to end up in the wrong news category, most often with a Weird World / Quirky story appearing in Entertainment.

There’s an example live at the moment:

Woman is savaged in 18st reindeer attack.

By no stretch of the imagination is this an entertainment story, even if the poor woman was once a contestant on a reality TV show.

Was the Google algorithm confused by the tasteless “Sex rampage reindeer Mr Frosty gores woman” in the Metro – Mr Frosty sounding like a cartoon character, or possibly a reference to the Xmas song “Frosty the Snowman”?

It highlights that human editors do a very valuable job!

Have you come across any strange Google News results (in any country)?  Or have you any idea how this story got into the Entertainment category  – please let us know…

The controversy escalated when a senior member of the NUJ posted short-tempered comments reacting to the blogger’s activities, in the process, outing the full name of the colleague being accused of unprofessional behaviour.

The Guardian took the story up in a big way and the controversy continued as the writer of The Guardian’s think-piece is actually married to an NUJ member who was also posting comments on the original blog post (this was stated on his article). [Edit - see clarification in comments, she is actually an ex-member]

Hope you are following this…

NB – let me declare my interests in this (limited though they are). Our blogging seminar leader was Martin Belam, another employee at The Guardian. Also, a few years ago I had an NUJ training course arranged for me by someone right at the heart of the scandal. Yes, yes, I do move in the right circles…

To a career journalist working for a serious publication / outlet there are complex rules and standards about reporting, such as – never depend on a single source for information, don’t publish opinions as facts etc. etc.

Should bloggers follow the standards of reporting as employed by organisations like the BBC and Reuters? 

Here’s my twopennorth –

Blogs are not reports
From the very earliest days of blogs, there has always been the understanding that a blog is somewhat personal – in other words an “op ed”, or “opinion piece”.
(NB, the word “blog” is an abbreviation of weblog, meaning a journal)

Are the navel gazing “In my life” columns that feature in all our major newspapers subject to the rigorous fact-checking processes that a news report is subject to?  No, I don’t think so. In fact, I would guess some of them they have pretty obviously been dashed off in the last half hour before deadline with only the slightest bit of thought!  (Yes, that is professional jealousy…)

However, of course some standards should be met and many bloggers are completely unaware of even their most basic responsibilities.

I am a journalist by training, over the years working primarily on features and marketing content.

Nevertheless, I still have a hazy memory of McNae’s Essential Law for Journalists and therefore do my very best not to libel anyone, make wilful mis-statements (no matter how riled I am) or affect the proceeding of active court cases. 

Everyone blogging should adhere to these basic principles, but they don’t.  Yes – I’m looking at you Perez Hilton!

Basics

1. Don’t publish immediately after writing. Take a break, walk away and ideally get someone else to take a look at what you’ve written.
2. Don’t call Mr So-and-so down the road a paedophile, whether because you think it’s a funny thing to say, or if you really think he is one (if so, go to the police!). Furthermore, don’t even hint that someone on your road is a paedophile – technically anyone who fits your vague description could sue you.
3. Don’t panic if someone contacts you to argue about what you’ve written and don’t respond immediately! Take another look, ideally with a second pair of eyes, and see if you think you were fair.

   There are lots of ways to deal with complaints – valid or otherwise.  Often giving a complainant the right-to-reply suffices. Almost always, a friendly response is the sensible option and if your correspondent turns out to be irrational – end the conversation immediately.

4. Never, ever steal information…

There are lots of other legal considerations.  If you think there are any that bloggers should regard as a priority, please add a comment.  Thanks.