What's that floating in the mainstream?

A couple stories that you may have seen on Shanghaiist recently have ended up in the mainstream media.

Earlier this month, tipped by Danwei, we told you of some backward policies involving ayis and buses found on the Shanghai Racquet Club's website. Reuters today picked up on the story some 11 days after it first appeared on Danwei and Shanghaiist. Apparently the Beijing News recently ran a story on the situation -- which has since been fixed by the club -- as well.

Reuters is calling the story "Shanghai's 'Rosa Parks Bus'" and this snippet caught our eye:

China's online surfers accused the villa's management of "discrimination against the working class", the Beijing News said.

But the club's CEO, surnamed Russell, denied the accusation, the newspaper said.

Denied what exactly? It was all pretty easy to see on their website.

Yesterday, the South China Morning Post ran an update on the subject matter of our post from May 23 entitled "Shanghai Crackdown: Art fought the law and the law won," about a local art exhibition that was shut down by "authorities." The SCMP headline read "'Pornographic' art exhibition closed." Here's a clip:

Cultural authorities closed "Solo Exhibition" after just one hour on Saturday night by shutting off power at the venue, in part because of photographs of naked women displayed by artist Zhang Ding ...

We suppose the "cultural authorities" haven't walked past a Shanghai news stand recently. No nude girlie photos there. Let's hope the cultural authorities don't head to Nanjing, where there is a huge black cock on display.

We have no way of knowing if organizations like Reuters or newspapers like the SCMP read blogs like Danwei or Shanghaiist. We have no way of knowing where they learned of the above stories. We do know, however, that journalists more and more turn to the blogosphere for ... inspiration. Which is great -- the more outlets the better. We wonder, though, when newspapers will start crediting blogs for scoops when credit is due. Newspapers pat each other on the back in print all the time. When will blogs get the same treatment?

Image from ESWN.