Remember that smear piece on Cindy McCain that the Times put up a couple weeks ago, back when that shit mattered? The reporter, Jodi Kantor, got some of her sources from trolling through MySpace and Facebook, asking 16 and 17-year olds of her future sources if she could talk to their parents.

Sort of like the 21st century version of the cold call. But not really. And now Kantor has opened up a whole ethical can of worms over what is and is not acceptable etiquette when dealing with minors or social networking sites when you are a reporter.

Craig Whitney, the standards editor, said he would have suggested that Kantor not send the message. He has since drafted a new guideline that says approaching minors to ask about private lives “is a particularly sensitive area” and “may not be advisable.” It requires prior consultation with him.

What's crazy is it took this long for reporters to find this "creative" way around editorial guidelines that look down on reporters interviewing minors as credible witnesses without the consent of their parents. Both MySpace and Facebook have been out for how long now? And reporters are just realizing that it's basically one gigantic phone book of famous people's children?

To be fair, Kantor never took any direct quotes from any one of her new friends, but if you read that Cindy McCain piece, which really was just awful, you can totally tell it was influenced by the ramblings of Arizona State freshman.