This is a comment I left on Andy Ihnatko’s site, “the Celestial Waste of Bandwidth”, concerning Gizmodo’s responsibility in leaking what could be the latest iPhone:

You make a very valid point nobody else (Mashable, Engadget, et al.) has made – Ben Parker’s famous mantra rings loud and clear for Gizmodo and blogs of that ilk today: “With great power, comes dot dot dot…”.

Gizmodo and Engadget are in a tough spot. They’re technically blogs, but they are viewed as news sources. They’re the Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly of Web punditry.

It’s a very tricky place to be in because even if they don’t consider themselves legitimate news sources, many other people do. No one is going to head over to CNN or MSNBC for their tech news – they’re going to Gizmodo, Engadget, Mashable and others like them because those sites are from where the “breaking” stories come. It’s similar to how John Stewart makes very valid arguments against Jim Cramer for CNBC’s responsibility in the Wall Street collapse, or against Betsy McCaughey’s view on the healthcare reform bill, but then claims later on that it’s “just a comedy show.”

You can’t have it both ways. When you start acting like a true source of technology news (going to events, liveblogging them, breaking stories to the public), you should be required to adhere to the same standards as traditional news outlets. This means not only vetting sources, but vetting whether you should publish a story at all if you came into it less than ethically (or legally). Unfortunately, on the Internet it’s about pageviews and hits. When ad revenue is your main source of income, ethics stay home while you drive that fat check to the bank.

I’ve never held much stake in Gizmodo’s ethics or journalistic integrity, but where does it stop? After someone buys a knockoff iPhone from China with a different case, hollows it out and shoves the 3GS’ innards into it, claiming it to be the latest and greatest from Cupertino? Jason Chen and his site should step up and take responsibility.