WSJ to staff Twits: Don't be stupid

Can professional journalists be twusted to tweet? The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times don't seem to think so: the Journal recently handed its staff a detailed new set of guidelines governing "online activities," while the Times hired a "social media editor" whose job includes (but isn't limited to) policing employees' Facebook and Twitter output.

Old-media stodginess? Panicky overreaction? Not at all, says Alan Murray, executive editor of The Wall Street Journal Online. At a panel discussion on the future of media today, held at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and sponsored by I Want Media), Murray attempted to put a common-sense spin on his paper's Web 2.0 policies: