Amra Tareen, CEO of Allvoices, which also blends citizen journalism with mainstream news coverage gave WebProNews the following statement on the matter:

"The world of journalism and news is changing before our eyes. As an industry, we are able to reach small villages around the world as well as untold stories right here in the U.S. But the sites that host these communities have to be smart and use the technology, editors and community they host, to separate the wheat from the chaff."

"We are empowering people to report for the nation and for the world – these contributors/reporters should be able to identify themselves as such and claim that title," adds Tareen. "It’s up to the CNNs of the world to help readers understand what is legit and what is not, not rely on lawsuits to do the work."

The man CNN is reportedly suing is named Robert Paisola. His blog is titled "Robert Paisola: The Life of a CNN I Reporter". According to the Hollywood Reporter, he had a CNN logo on his Twitter account (though this is not present anymore), and has CNN in his Twitter bio (Hat Tip: BI).

The man has been accused of numerous nasty things, and it isn’t hard to see why CNN wouldn’t want to be associated with him, as the Hollywood Reporter points out. There is also some suspect info on his LinkedIn profile as discussed here.

It’s not exactly clear whether or not Paisola has actually contributed content to iReport. If not, CNN would certainly have a legitimate beef. If he has, however, Tareen’s point has some merit of its own. Given the amount of shadiness around this guy’s reputation, CNN likely has the upper hand here, but reputation isn’t law (granted I have no legal expertise).

Both CNN and Paisola have been hard to reach for comments on the matter.

If you do contribute to iReport, should you be able to call yourself a CNN iReporter? Tell us what you think.

The new site will be hosted at iReport.com and will be devoted entirely to user-produced news. Contributors to the site will be able to post whatever content they choose according to CNN. Previously iReport submissions were selected by editors and fact checked before they made it online or on the air.

The site has a social media feel similar to YouTube according to MediaWeek. Visitors to iReport can search through categories including sports, weather and politics. Users will be able to rate and share clips as well as embed them on other sites. Contributors will be able to create profiles and develop a following.

"The community will decide what the news is," said Susan Grant, executive vp CNN News Services. "We are not going to discourage or encourage anything. . . . iReport will be completely unvetted." CNN will police the site for inappropriate content.

Grant said that iReport content will carry a disclaimer stating that it does not reflect the editorial views of CNN.

As for advertising Grant said," We’re going to start very, very small." The site will have a single display ad on its homepage and no pre-roll video ads. "I don’t know if we’re ever going to have them," she said.

To spark participation CNN is turning to regular contributors to the iReport such as Rick Ebrecht of Savannah, Ga. whose videos of storms aired on CNN. Ebrecht voiced concern over the openness of the site.

"The first thing that came to mind is ethics and credibility," he said. "People have to not take things at face value. People (on the site) will have to keep an eye on each other."

CNN created the iReport in August 2006, and since its launch it has received more than 100,000 photos and video submissions.
 

CNN Markets Domain Name but Fails to Turn It On

Yes, you’re reading that right. CNN bought iReport.com for $750,000 and according to sources they’re actually running commercials on CNN.com telling people to go to iReport.com. But apparently the marketing department failed to tell the IT department to actually change the DNS and make the site live. OOPS! Take a look at the screen capture below:

So much for getting a website live. Last time I tried, I had a domain name purchased and up and running with content within 15 minutes. At least you could redirect it to CNN.com in the meantime. Sheesh!

Oilman Todd Friesen Leaving Range Online Media
Todd Friesen has announced that he is leaving Range Online Media and going to Visible Technologies. That’s big news in the Search Marketing community.

11 Must Read Social Media Blogs
SEO 2.0 is out with a great post about 11 social media blogs that you need to read. What’s interesting is that I, too, am seeing that many blogs are now changing their focus.

Match.com Goes Grey Hat

Courtesy of Mr. Wolf, Match.com has noticed that there’s a bunch of old-style text on the homepage of Match.com. Wow, that sure does bring back memories of SEO circa 1997.

Watching Sphinn

Maybe it’s just me, but someone has too much time on their hands if you’re spending time watching Sphinn. Sure, it’s useful information to have, and I probably will use the data that they’ve outlined here. I, like the other SEOs, like Sphinn. I guess if you’re going to sphinn something then you ought to be doing it on Thursday.

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