BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) — We just want to give a shout out to WPEC-TV which, over the past several months, has taken multiple stories from BocaNewsNow.com without attribution.
The latest: this morning! WPEC, owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, ran with our exclusive reporting on FBI activity in a West Delray Beach community. How do we know we were first? Well, the FBI. They have a solid track record of being tops when it comes to information.
The same can’t be said, apparently, for WPEC. They don’t release their current ratings, but a press release from competitor WPBF suggests WPEC isn’t really the 1-2 watch for many people. As of November, WPBF was tops in all metrics, according to the station.
Legitimate journalism has never been more important. When we report work generated by others, we link to the original source (our link above to WPBF, for instance). If a link doesn’t make sense, we write the attribution as part of the story so there is no question.
BocaNewsNow.com is a hobby. We’ve made that clear. But while a hobby, BocaNewsNow.com has very deep roots in print and national broadcast journalism. We believe legitimacy is important whether it’s national news or a hyper-local website. BocaNewsNow generates well over one million pageviews a month.
To be fair: there are great reporters and anchors at Channel 12. As any reporter knows, the on-camera person often gets held accountable for the decisions made by an off-camera news manager.
We have had several email discussions with WPEC-TV News Director Jon Brady. He apparently isn’t concerned about where information for the station’s website or newscasts originates.
We are.
WPEC: if you repost this story on your website, we’d appreciate attribution or a link back to BocaNewsNow.com. We think it’s important for your viewers to know what good journalism looks like.
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UPDATE: June 20, 2020: WPEC has apparently rethought its actions and is now attributing their story to BocaNewsNow.com. The Sun Sentinel is as well.
