A battle is brewing over ethics on the internet and at the center of the storm is Harry Knowles. You’ve probably read that same story that ran in every news outlet over the past few years about the kid from Texas who produces the web site Ain’t It Cool News from the bedroom of his dad’s house. While most have visited the site and realized that giant news stories about the color of Magneto’s cape in the upcoming X-Men movie is hardly news, Harry has developed a reputation for breaking stories that nearly always turn out to be false or at least questionable. Occasionally, something big turns out to be true, which means that AICN is not totally dismissable as an “internet scoop” outlet. And there are reputable scoop sites on the internet that check and sometimes even question their sources such as Dark Horizons, CHUD.com, and Coming Attractions.
Patrick Sauriol is the co-Creator, Director and Chief Content Writer of the Internet’s first upcoming movie website, Coming Attractions. Last week Sauriol broke a story about Jimmy Smits getting a role in the highly anticipated [ Star Wars Episode II & III ] and he sent this scoop off to Knowles. Knowles disrespected Sauriol by not properly crediting the Coming Attractions web site. While this issue over proper credit is minor, it has sparked a debate. More than a debate, a WAR over internet ethics. Sauriol has taken Knowles to task on his site in a thoughtful essay called “A Question of Ethics.” The story on Coming Attractions bears reading and this war over the reporting of entertainment news on the net seems to just be getting started. To read the complete story, visit: Coming Attractions: A Question of Ethics
