To out or not to out?

A Washington, D.C.-based blogger's campaign to out gay politicians who oppose gay-friendly legislation is putting journalists in a quandary -- what is appropriate to report? Rep. Ed Schrock of Virginia was blogger Michael Rogers' most high-profile victim. The two-term Republican ended his re-election bid last month after Rogers posted an audio clip allegedly featuring Schrock talking on a gay phone service. Schrock, who supported the proposed amendment to ban same-sex marriage, never addressed the allegations, but their existance was enough to force him into early retirement.

This is a pretty good example of independent journalism and the lack of a code of ethics among bloggers. This kind of story is something a lot of traditional publications wouldn't publish, but blogs allow independent writers to publish whatever they want (sort of like satellite radio, which is in the news because of Howard Stern's impending move) Just as interesting, some newspapers and magazines will pick up a story that was broken by a blogger even if they wouldn't go public with the news themselves.

(Check out Michael Rogers' blog here.)