Ya gotta remember the links

So here I am, referred by Romenesko, reading a good Seattle P-I column about how its cartoonist is being flamed for an editorial cartoon -- the P-I simply referred to it as a "military cartoon" -- that I infer from the article had something to do with Newsweek, the military and the deaths of prisoners from the Middle East in American custody.

Only, that's the problem. I had to infer. Nowhere in the article was there a link to the cartoon. Nowhwere on the left or right rails, or wrapped into the text, was a thumbnail of the cartoon.

So I clicked on the "David Horsey" link on the left rail, then had to spend a moment figuring out the cartoon's date, and then clicked through to it. Here it is:


We've got to get over this idea that somehow we're just doing print on the Web. This is a case that screamed for links, not only to the cartoon but to any letters to the editor referencing it -- and maybe to any blogs where it's been discussed, too. This is why the Web is both broad and deep. But it will remain shallow until we start using all its resources.

That's one of the reasons I think Brad Warthen's blog at The (Columbia) State is a good example of how to do it. Unlike many newspaper blogs I've seen, he's willing to link both internally and off the site.