I think the problem goes deeper than "don't publish sex tapes". I have had a substantial number of news blog stories written about me, and I think among the ge

I think the problem goes deeper than "don't publish sex tapes". I have had a substantial number of news blog stories written about me, and I think among the general population of news bloggers there's a lack of professional ethics of the kind journalists supposedly used to have. Certainly not all bloggers are bad; some of them are upstanding, but really the majority are not. When the incentive is just to get the most hits, it is very easy for a blogger to present a quote or situation out of context, or even for an editor to slant a headline in a certain way, in order to make the maximally inflammatory result. When this happens, it is parasitic behavior -- they are degrading your reputation in order to make money. But the amount of money they make off that article is small compared to how much you value your reputation, so the result is massively net-negative to the world. This has happened to me A LOT so I have a pretty well-tuned sense for how it happens. I also have a pretty long list of journalists and outlets I won't do interviews with ever again. The issues get pretty subtle. For example, it is common for them to take a one-or-two-sentence aside from an interview and write a ehole article about it, making it seem like you called a press conference just to say that one thing -- which is a massive distortion of your intent (and usually your personality). Because they want the most hits and people being enraged makes hits, it is usually a negative distortion. And it's intentional -- they are trained to look for these opportunities. I think it is very unethical, though of course there is nothing illegal about it -- you did say that exact thing. I think as long as that is happening, it is hard to take these sites seriously as producing "journalism".