A Weird Event at the Well-hidden ADN Niche, The Editor's Blog

That's a picture of me.

I stole it from an article at the Anchorage Daily News. Unlike the one of Snowzilla by Bob Hallinen I temporarily borrowed from them over the weekend, I'll keep this one up.

Bob's picture was put up in an attempt to get a response from Pat Dougherty. Instead, I got one from someone who posts as "editorsblog," in a well-hidden "editorial," riddled with inaccuracies, errors and intentionally inflammatory falsehoods.

I printed the entire editorial as an update to PA's earlier post on Snowzilla coverage. But some inaccuracies in "editorsblog"'s post merit a post of their own:

editorsblog's post stated, "Phil, if you want photos on your site, why don't you take your own?"

Hundreds of my own photos are posted at PA.

editorsblog's post stated, "Munger backhandedly acknowledges that he took the photo from the Daily News, although he apparently removed the photographer’s credit."

PA credited the photographer at the bottom of the post, where image credits are usually placed.

editorsblog post concludes with this:

When this happens to us, I usually explain the law and ask the offender to remove our material, which in almost every case they do. I encourage them to link to our content, so their readers can view whatever story or photo they’re referencing.

Munger is unusual in that he seems proud of himself for appropriating the photograph and stripping the photographer's credit."

The photo at the top was provided to the Anchorage Daily News by me. It is of me. There are no photo credits attached to their article. When I sent the photo, at the ADN's request, I didn't ask for a credit, nor did they ask me any questions about its provenance. But they certainly knew who had provided it. Apparently, they are happy letting some of their readers assume one of their fine photographers took it, depriving my photographer of his or her "intellectual property rights."

Over the years, the ADN has done this stuff with my material before. And to others, some of them professionals. They'll probably do it up until the paper folds, sometime in late 2009. Their writers rip off Alaska bloggers for material and links all the time, seldom acknowledging their sources in print.

editorsblog was pretty bold coming on my blog and accusing me of this:

Philip Munger is a local blogger and critic of the Daily News. He’s also a thief and curiously proud of it. I noticed over the weekend that Munger has, for at least the second time, stolen the property of the Daily News for use on his blog, in this case a photo from our coverage of Snowzilla, the giant outlaw snowman. Munger backhandedly acknowledges that he took the photo from the Daily News, although he removed the photographer’s credit.

Munger appears to understand the basics of copyright law, he just doesn’t seem to believe it should apply to him.

Read the rest of this post at:

http://community.adn.com/adn/node/136011

editorsblog publicly and in writing accused me of being a thief and of having "removed [a] photographer's credit."

I'm not accusing the ADN of thieving my photo I provided. But I do think editorsblog owes Progressive Alaska and PA's readers a written apology at this point.