Hello all,
We know a lot of journalists use MN both for pleasure (ie they're Mnetters) and for research. To be honest we don't see anything wrong with MN being an inspiration for ideas - as has been said, this is a public forum and it's bit akin to overhearing a conversation in the pub.
You could see it as flattering that we are increasingly seen as (and undoubtedly are) a bellweather/ opinion formers/ the font of all truth and knowledge.
With regard to quotes, journalists are allowed by law to lift a certain amount under the copyright laws see - fair use
We obviously think it's polite to attribute quotes and it's irritating if that doesn't happen but usually people do.
We do of course have a media requests board for journalists looking for case studies (and we charge em 30 squids towards running costs for the pleasure) so if you suspect someone is doing that on the sly - do shout!
Of course lifting great chunks of experience and passing it off as one's own is bad journalistic practice and very ill-advised I suspect from a career standpoint - if you're a journo thinking of doing that, don't - it's not worth it (you'll be caught out in the end).
Have to say though, in the ten years since we've been going I would say it's only happened definitively once or twice. So it's not something that keeps us awake at night.
Thanks for raising the issue - it's an interesting one.