Quote me on it: Romenesko criticism is foolish

This is real:

Mr. Romenesko was taken to the woodshed by Julie Moos, director of Poynter Online, for failing to put quotation marks around phrases he borrowed from articles he was aggregating for his blog.

If you know who Jim Romenesko is, you understand how damn stupid this criticism is. Romenesko has spent the past many years aggregating, summarizing and linking to the most interesting inside-baseball reporting on the media business, creating a column (or is it a blog?) that’s widely considered to be the most prominent, rewarding place a journalist can have his or her work featured — short of winning a Pulitzer.

Thankfully, the NY Times’ “Media Decoder” blog offers a more level-headed thought on the matter:

“As someone who Romenesko has linked various times, I have never given, nor could I imagine giving, a crap about this practice,” said James Poniewozik, the television critic for Time magazine, in a comment on Poynter’s site. “Unless there are far more egregious examples out there — which I strain to imagine, since the practice and intent of Romenesko’s blog is self-evident — this is a nothingburger.”

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