Sunday, the San Francisco Chronicle had a front-page story on a youtube video. The day before, the LA Times had a major story on TPM and the USA purge scandal.

However, the unlike the above paragraph, the online version of neither story actually included a link to what they were talking about. This is a blatant violation of accepted ethical guidelines and it is far past time for newspapers to start forcing ethics online.

Have web editors finally decided to get on the right side of an ethical briteline? Carla Marinucci (who once famously used the SF Gate Politics blog to quote verbatim without attribution) has a new story that actually includes a link.

But it is clear that at least at SF Gate, there isn’t a clear policy to prevent this ethical scandals. In a story last night on a food recall, there was a link at the bottom of the story but look at the awkwardness of this:

A complete list of the recalled products along with product codes, descriptions and production dates was available from the Menu Foods Web site, .

For some reason, SF Gate decided to cut out a website from an AP story (others didn’t).

Anyway, most people saw this weeks ago, but here is the original spot. Since I’m linking, you can see what it is I’m talking about. When Drudge read Marinucci’s Sunday story he had to go searching for the ad and ended up linking to a copy. But at least he linked — that is how things work online.

The only reason you don’t link is if you believe the website in question is beneath contempt.

Hopefully web editors will figure this out, I’m shocked Romenesko hasn’t been all over this.