This was of course long before social media came along and provided everyone an opportunity to be the journalist instead of just the source. Tied in with that was the total paranoia on the side of the mainstream media newspapers that this Twitter things was just too flaky and bloggers were trying to destroy their business.
A good example of this meeting on a common ground can be seen in a post today at Poynter Online where Daniel B. Honigman talks about a recent evacuation at the Cook County circuit clerk's office after a bomb threat and how the
Chicago Tribune included local Twitter users in tracking down the story. Beyond that, the Tribune used the service to further spread the story that the Tribune had posted to their online site.
At the same time the story link was posted to Twitter via the Tribune’s Twitter persona – ColonelTribune – who also took time to thank those on [img src="http://sale-online.click/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/twit4.gif" caption="" credit="" alt="Attributions made for help on Twitter"]Twitter who had helped with the leads on the story.
While I would have like to have seen that type of attribution in the story as well I fine this kind of willingness to embrace and use new technology like Twitter very encouraging. Rather than the typical bickering that seems to go on about the value of services like this there are organizations that are finding ways to make them work. In the end we all benefit and that is a good thing.