• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, December 4, 2024

Who owns a reporter’s social media posts? That question is popping up again as reporters adopt a new way of verifying who they are when posting on Bluesky, according to an article in NiemanLab. 

Verifying your domain and identity can be a tedious undertaking, especially if you are moving from X to Bluesky.   

But there is a way. 

Dylan Freedman, who covers AI for The New York Times says journalists should use sub-domains of their news organizations. He writes that this would be a “relatively foolproof means of verficiation at the expense of being tied to your professional identity (but you can always change it later).” 

NiemanLab observes that “because Freedman was already ’verified’ as @dylanfreedman.com, the advantage of adding the interstitial “nytimes” is minimal. (Just as my switching to @jbenton.niemanlab.org would be of only marginal value.),” NiemanLab’s Joshua Benton writes. “But most reporters either don’t own their own domains or don’t care to fiddle around with DNS entries, so a news outlet being able to mass-verify its journalists could have real utility. (One other zero-cost option: using your GitHub handle.)

Sounds good, but this could add fuel to the running debate. Journalists want to control their own domains. Where does that end?

Publishers surely have the right to monitor outside posts and to ensure that they comply with the house rules. 

Does a reporter covering a beat have the right to post personal opinions on news? That’s an iffy question, as FDR used to say. If he or she is identified as being with the organization, surely they must adhere to the publication’s ethical standards and stylebook.

Above all, they must avoid creating an issue for their employer — with unwise comments on the Middle East, for example.  

The inclusion of the publication sub-domain makes that even more imperative.