I knew it would come to this some day. I knew the lines between reporters and bloggers, between journalism and Internet rumours and speculation, and between amateur news sites and professional media outlets had been all but erased. I knew this was a brave new world of the Web and that the rules of journalism had changed; people can create their own content - music videos, comics, news reports - and they don't need corporate America's permission anymore. And that's a good thing - sort of.

On one hand, it's a great way for people to combat the perverted and pervasive media consolidation in today's globalized world and get their news and entertainment from independent sources.

On the other hand, it has created a problem, at least for the news media. It's becoming exceedingly difficult to discern where the lines between blogging and amateur news gathering end and professional journalism begins. And therein, as the bard would tell us, lies the rub.

Take the recent example at Joystiq, the popular gaming news blog. Joystiq fired one its writers, Robert Summa, after a heavily hyped bit of news, which was teased as a "major next-gen console" announcement, turned out to be not so huge and enraged its readers. The blog post in question, penned by Summa, revealed nothing more than an embargoed press release from IBM that confirmed the Wii processor had been shipped to Nintendo. It obviously wasn't the big announcement that many expected - the Wii release date or price. The now-infamous post went up at midnight on Sept. 8 and soon readers were filling the comments forum with scorn and venomous insults. This is big news? This is what I stayed up for? many of them asked.

After some pretty intense backlash from readers, Joystiq decided to wipe the egg of its face and terminate the employment of Summa, one its most prolific bloggers. Joystiq editor Christopher Grant quickly wrote a thoughtful apology to readers, which essentially put the blame on Joystiq for succumbing to the rules of Internet hype instead of laws of real news.

Grant stated: "The worst part is, we understand that it was our hard-earned credibility that contributed to this excitement cocktail. There are gaming Websites that trade in hype, and we've always prided ourselves on avoiding it. If we tell you that something is 'major' and 'worth waiting for,' naturally you would expect it to be."

Well, it didn't take long for Summa to land somewhere else - a new gaming blog called Destructoid - and fire back at Joystiq. In his first post on Destructoid, Summa declared that he was "very happy to be free from Joystiq's shackles" and that "Joystiq takes themselves WAY too seriously." Summa doesn't apologize and instead objects to Joystiq portraying him as a scapegoat.

Here's more from Summa's post:

"I in no way meant to hype anything. There was no ulterior motive to bring increased traffic. The entire affair was blown way out of proportion. Joystiq fired me because of fan reaction and their fear of losing whatever credibility they think they have. Also, we were both headed in different directions. They wanted content that was long, boring and obscure. I want to write about fun stuff like rumours, culture and everything that is humorous out there."

And rumours it will be, apparently. One of Summa's recent posts on Destructoid is a self-described rumour about Wii online beta testing, which Summa got off a forum from a guy who he writes is "just talking out of his ass." Ironically, Summa started off the post with "I don't normally like to take rumours from message boards, but considering how plausible it sounds, what the hell." The post also featured the below image of "Rumour Has It...", and I can't tell if that was meant as a disclaimer to readers or a tongue-in-cheek gag.

Rumour has it...that Robert Summa is now blogging at Destructoid

I think I have an idea of what's going on here. Clearly, Summa wasn't adhering to the same journalistic standards as his former employer. Joystiq is trying to ensure quality the same way a newspaper or magazine would, whereas Summa feels the site is just shoot-from-the-hip blogging where the rules of journalism don't apply. Summa wasn't acting reporter - he was acting as blogger. But even a blogger, who is delivering information to the masses, has a duty to be truthful and accurate.

So is Joystiq to blame for hiring someone as a blogger but who they wanted to act like a journalist? Are they to blame for allowing Summa to hype a press release as a "scoop" and then firing him when readers reacted badly to the news? Or is the unapologetic Summa to blame for callously discarding his responsibility to readers and laughing off Joystiq's credibility? Should Summa be blamed for acting unprofessionally, even if he's not a "professional"?

Or is he? As if the waters on this subject weren't murky enough, here's another wrinkle: Summa currently works as the gaming beat reporter and columnist at "Metro," one of the largest free daily newspapers in the world. I often read his work and he's quite good; check out his column titled <link104>A Gamer's Life. In fact, it's hard to believe sometimes reading Summa's prose on "Metro" that it's the same guy who's blogging on Joystiq/Destructoid. So can Summa be a both a blogger and a journalist at the same time? Can he act as reporter for a legit news source and still blog freely for other sites? Or does switching hats muddy the waters even more? Does this lead to a Jekyll-and-Hyde scenario where a journalist reports the facts for one outlet but then freely writes his her unfiltered thoughts and speculation for another destination? One could get a serious headache trying to figure this out.