Now yes there might be another Ericka planning on moving on Friday who lives in a 40 foot radius from the Real World house but my money is on this being the first cast member to move out.  If it’s true, I’m wondering what happened to warrant such a quick departure from the show.  Catfight or racist remark?  We’ll find out when MTV edits it.  The sign is posted below.

Last week, the DC blogosphere and Twitterverse saw some tit-for-tat action in regard to coverage of The Real World DC.  Without rehashing exactly what went on (for that, you can just hop over to our friends at Vevmo.com and check out the Washington DC thread) let’s address the issue at hand: sourcing.

Much of last week’s the debate stemmed from several interlaced issues. One of these issues was the responsibility of proper sourcing in “vigilante journalism” versus “paid blogging.”  A Virginia-dwelling stalker blogger was hired as a paid blogger for a media outlet in the District and reposted some information that obviously originated from other sources.  The blogger, however, didn’t cite the information on the for-profit site.  A back-and-forth began when the blogger was called out on the offense by more than one of the sources. After several days of finger pointing, name calling, denial, and retorts, the issue was resolved (sort of) and the problem corrected (much to the chagrin of the offending blogger).

Ultimately, it’s clear that improper sourcing had occurred (the blogger’s bosses at the for-profit site conceded this fact.

During the publicly discussed “scandal” many people commented on this issue by saying that this wasn’t serious news and that the entire situation had become out of hand or altogether didn’t matter.  While this was obviously not a typical D.C. issue, you’ve got to ask yourself one question:  At what point did we decide that standards would be thrown out the window?

That is to say, who should and who should not be held accountable for the information posted in the various forms of new and social media available to anybody with a computer or a smart phone?

In a perfect world, every blogger, tweeter, facebooker and so on would attribute every piece of unoriginal information, per AP Style guidelines. Unfortunately, that’s just unrealistic.  But, any time a contributor receives pay for publishing information; it becomes not only an issue of best practices but also a legal one.  Plagiarism is intellectual theft and getting paid to use stolen information comes with the risk of legal repercussions.

So on the issue of who had what information and who posted it (as in the case of last week’s Real World DC quarrel) the bottom line is this:  If you are getting paid to blog, and you borrow information that is not part of the public domain, you must cite it.  Plain and simple.  Plus, it’s just plain common courtesy to do so.  Anything less (whether you’re paid or not) is just as douchy as some of the stuff that goes on in and around 2000 S Street, NW.

I’ve been getting my haircut at VSL for over 6 years.  It’s my favorite place in DC as I am VERY particular about who gets to touch my hair.  Interested to see how this is portrayed on the show and whether or not producers will ask one of the cast members to “make a big change” and cut all their hair off or get a makeover so they can edit it later on into something bigger.

Either way – just passing along the info on this gorgeous Saturday in DC.

And yes, I have a stylist.

The photo shows not only DCFD and the Capitol, but mascots for both the Nats AND the Caps!  Now THAT is real DC!  Congratulations!

We will post a new photo every Thursday so keep your submissions coming!

Check out his photo at our Flickr group and below.

To enter, simply add a photo to the Flickr group that you think best represents “Real” DC to you and tag it with “ARWDC”.

We’ll eventually come up with a prize each week that is better than bragging rights and your photo on a blog.  Something like KindaLikePuck cooking you breakfast or something.

And the first fight on my sidewalk occurred at 3 AM today. Wasn’t actually between castmates, but rather onlookers outside of the house. Lasted about 30 minutes and caused enough of a ruckus to have the cast come outside and watch.

One woman beat another woman senseless on the ground for a full ten minutes as their friends said “let them fight!”

Best part had to be the security folks doing NOTHING and watching two girls go at it. Didn’t do anything. Didn’t try to break it up. Didn’t call the cops. Did absolutely nothing. I guess they can’t do anything because they’re Park Police, right? Cars pulling up and shouting. Dogs and cats living together. Mass hysteria!

Can’t wait for 4 more months of this!

It’s actually still going on as I write this.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/antirealworlddc/

Enjoy!

While doing an interview with Washington Post outside of my place,
castmember we call "Gerardo" walked by to go buy cigarettes at the
Safeway. He was trailed by a gaggle of 7 interns taking photos.

Everyones gotta have an entourage I guess.

Which is why we’ve decided to do a weekly “Real DC” photo contest. There are plenty of people playing paparazzi and hiding in garbage cans to catch photos of the RW cast, but that isn’t really “real” in DC is it? While we still appreciate photos of the cast and citizen reporting from bars and other neighborhoods, we think doing a flash mob to take photos of the cast is a little…stalkerish.

So send us your best photo of what you think is “real” DC. If you think it’s your friends and you partying at Wonderland – send it. If you think its the mailman in Petworth – send it. If you think its you giving us the finger while volunteering at a soup kitchen – send it. We want to see what you think is the best image of “real” DC – uncensored, unscripted. A great example of a “real” DC photo can be found at Brian Smith’s Photoblog. But your photo doesn’t have to be a feel good moment, it doesn’t have to be on a great camera – hell, it doesn’t even have to be a good looking photo! Just visit and join our Anti-Real World DC Flickr Group and simply add your photo to the group pool. Be sure to tag your photo “ARWDC” so we know it’s for the contest.

We’ll post the Photo of the Week every Thursday and I suppose we’ll figure out a prize too eventually.

There are a lot more things going on in DC than just a four month long TV show filming. We know you can prove it! We’ll still take your photos of the cast and crew in DC, but no need to pose as the pizza guy to get inside the house and snap some shots. We love stuff you guys are sending and we’re sure as filming continues, the likelihood of photos from my living room of cast members puking on the sidewalk will increase.

Good luck and have fun!

The contributors to this blog don’t drive the content on the site, the readers do. Our wonderful readership (yes – we include even you folks who read us JUST because you hate us) has helped us generate content from user ideas. We share ideas that sometimes spur disagreement, but how else is progress made without allowing both sides to speak? We are so eternally grateful for all of the readers and the tipsters and the blogs and the news outlets that have helped publicize this forum.

Which is why when bloggers who we will just refer to as “Heidi & Spencer” continue their attempts to antagonize and divide us, we take this opportunity to remind them about something we’ve all been told at one point in our lives (some of us 3 or 4 times):

“It’s not about you.”

As a neighbor, a homeowner, a DC-resident and a politically engaged citizen, the concept of “Anti-Real World” was never about the cast or the people. It was about the overarching themes that have been lost in MTV’s long running social experiment. It’s about being real. Part of being real is being honest. Do we judge? Absolutely. Do we heckle? Totally. Do we have attitude problems leading to a seemingly endless supply of snarky retorts? You betcha. But one thing we are through it all – is honest.

Those that enjoy this blog the most, whether they be MTV public relations execs, hill staffers, Dupont residents or local business owners – enjoy it because they have a sense of humor. It’s important to remind readers that the “social experiment” behind the Real World is that they AREN’T supposed to read tweets, social media, radios, TV, etc. The idea is the interaction between the housemates. This social experiment became compromised right around the time that Bunim-Murray started looking to fill “roles” on their Real World casts.

When one of our contributors met roommate Ashley the other night, he was genuinely impressed by her. He wrote about it. Those that were disappointed he didn’t smack her or yell an obscenity clearly haven’t interacted with enough people in their lives. This blog is full of snarky, sarcastic, care-free, fun-loving assholes. But we’re not bullies. We are not cowards because we don’t tell Ashley that her love for social change and do-gooder activities is lame. We are, however, honest, which is why we will continue to poke fun at the roommate that looks like Nick Jonas and the one that dresses like Gerardo.

We will continue to write things the way we do – with honesty. If we were really media whores about this, we’d probably of picked better colors for the site – don’t you think? This site is what you all make of it. We will continue to report when one of the cast members pukes on my sidewalk or when someone gets in a fight or when a security guard pretends to be the park police and makes a homophobic slur (seriously dude – not cool!). We call it like we see it. On some days, the grass looks nicer than on others. Let us make no mistake – we are neither here to make friends nor here to make enemies. We are here to simply call it like we see it.

It is our hope that one day, those who seek to appease their own self-esteem issues through constant “me me me” style video blogging will grow up, move out of mommy and daddy’s house, buy their own place and then take notice at what is going on in their communities.