Rushing to be wrong

I think we will remember cbssports' mistake for a while, and maybe even others will, too.

But I think less and less people really care, or will care, about this kind of thing anymore.

For better or worse, it's the nature of the ongoing and continuous news progression now. This was less of an issue in print-predominant days because there actually was a final deadline, a point at which stories, and the evolution of news, or at least the production of it, did actually stop, for that day, or that week, or that month.

This sort of thing -- being wrong one hour, and right the next -- almost can't help but happen now. I'm sure we'll be seeing more of it, particularly as "reporting" becomes the purview of more and more people, read: just about anyone, be they professional, amateur, random community member, photog, videography buff, broadcaster, blogger, or Twitter-or-whatever user.

You even have to wonder, how badly can Onward State or cbssports actually really feel now, considering that, where there was smoke, there obviously really was fire. I wonder if Devon Edwards really believes now that he should have resigned over the matter, or been asked to do so. Something tells me probably not.

 

Edwards fell on a sword. Clearly, the biggest culprit at Onward State was the reporter who provided misleading information to confirm the initial report.

 

FTR: You're right on the name correction, Versatile. Thanks. I've fixed in my earlier post.

 

Rushing to be wrong?

 

Definitely can't underplay the role of Twitter in all this. A lot more time to focus on diligence before the immediacy of the social media networks. Don't get me wrong, I love Twitter and Facebook for the wealth of information it supplies, but it is an amphetamine in the world of journalism.

 

I wish we wouldn't use the term "scoop" as it pertains to news like Paterno's death.

It's a death watch. Being first on this story is not a scoop. It's merely hitting the Jeopardy button first and hoping you get the question right.

The man was taken off a respirator. It was only a matter of time. Being the first to shout "DEAD!" is nothing to aspire to.

 

Agree. I think the biggest lesson is confirm before you RT or rewrite. I haven't seen anything saying CBS had a byline, so I'm assuming the desk rewrote off the OS report. That's so dangerous we essentially had a policy that unless NYT or WaPo reported it, don't trust it, don't repeat it. SI.com beat my guys on a major, major news story that would have been easy enough to rewrite according to published reports, but we held off until we could confirm. Took us 40 minutes -- a lifetime online -- but it was worth every second. Because all these years later, I'm about the only one who can remember SI had it first. Can't tell you how many times our guys have chased ESPN.com trade/coach search stuff only to find nothing there. RT or rewrite any of it, and we look just as out of touch, which is worse because it's our teams.

 

I really don't think Twitter is to blame. Lack of attribution is the main problem here. In the column I wrote yesterday on this issue, I argued:

"It is yet another lesson that in the race to be first, it is crucial to say where you got the information. I hope we are in a self-correcting phase where this dependency on one-source, unnamed stories passing as news will give way to tough questions about where the information originates.

It also raises questions about how news organizations have set up online blogs that can be posted to the world without any editorial or critical review.

Ironically, the one website and person who started the dissemination of the premature death of Paterno may have acted the most responsibly in this case."

http://sportsjournalism.org/sports-media-news/lessons-from-false-reports-on-paternos-death-and-the-problem-is-not-twitter/

 

Interestingly enough, this sort of just happened to me.

Was about to run big story (at weekly) about local area hosting state tournament meet. Call HS Ath. Assoc. to get a comment, find out it's not official until meeting on Wed. (We go to press at noon) So, now, my main art and story are kaput, but I'm glad I won't run the story only to find out we were wrong (and a day late, to boot).

 

It had a byline: Adam Jacobi, CBS' college football blogger.

 

I wouldn't put blame so fully on Twitter. If Twitter weren't there as a means for family to share its own information, might have newspapers that picked up a report from a major TV network's website and ran it the next day. It's not like incorrect information appeared only on Twitter. Blaming the medium is deflecting the accountability from the people who use it.

It's kind of like the old NRA deal: Twitter doesn't make factual errors, people who use Twitter make factual errors.

 

I think it's obvious that Twitter isn't fully to blame any more than cocaine would be to blame in the instance of an overdose. It's not Twitter fault it was misutilized (or the drugs for that matter), but you can't ignore the fact that it played a major role either. User error is the reason this happened, but without Twitter the importance of being first shrinks drastically IMO.