Rocky Mountain News "tweets" dead boy's funeral, now (thankfully) being savaged

Stitch · Sep 11, 2008

Joe Williams said:

jps said:

oh, and I've done live blogging from a game multiple times. even then it wasn't this worthless. unless there is something of value in what you write, why write at all? you don't give straight, bland pbp in that situation, anway (a game, I mean). you use the platform to give the reader an additional point of view, with observations and oftentimes editorial content, throughout. do that here and maybe it isn't quite as bad.
utter failure.
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I just wonder who "the reader" is for that sort of stuff, and why he gets to have his own personal reporter. Oh wait, it's more than one person? Fine, then why are we providing real-time basic info for the 37 doofuses who won't turn on their radios or TVs? I can't imagine, in 100 years, wanting to read just basic stuff while a game is going on and I have other media available. And once the game is over, it's pretty much worthless. If it's edgy and opinionated, that reporter probably has lost some of his worth at truth-seeking. But just because we can, we do.

And for the claim made somewhere here that, shucks, we were just trying it out at the funeral and maybe it was a mistake and we'll learn better over time ... tell it to that family. It's not like they're going to bury their three-year-old a second time, just because you were screwing around with your learning curve.
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Would the family even now if it was pointed out by another media organization?

captzulu · Sep 11, 2008

Re: Rocky Mountain News "tweets" dead boy's funeral, now (thankfully) being sava

IGotQuestions said:

Simple video, with no commentary, is the only treatment this funeral needed for the Web outside of a scene-setting story for the newspaper.
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Agreed. If the newspaper did a live webcast of the funeral, that's fine, as long as the family doesn't object. It's about using the right tool for the right job. Twitter is far from an abomination, and it can be great for disseminating useful news and drawing audience when used correctly. For instance, if you're covering next year's Macworld -- where people online all over the world will be hanging on every word, eagerly awaiting the next tidbit that comes from the event -- twitter is a great way to serve their needs. For a funeral, twitter is just the wrong tool. There is no real news coming out of it, and 140-word posts rarely are able to convey the emotion of the event, which is really the whole point of covering a funeral. This was a misuse of technology, compounded by poor execution.

buckweaver · Sep 11, 2008

Re: Rocky Mountain News "tweets" dead boy's funeral, now (thankfully) being sava

SF_Express said:

TS Quint said:

Twitter is a fine tool we should all learn how to use.

This was a poor journalism choice. It's really that simple.
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I really think that really sums it up with regard to a lot of New Media applications we are getting access to. They can be very helpful, and they can be used badly.

Just like a typewriter.
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Agreed, on that point.

2muchcoffeeman · Sep 11, 2008

Ace said:

2muchcoffeeman said:

Ace said:

2muchcoffeeman said:

If a journalist ever Twitters a funeral I'm attending ... the funeral home will be able to schedule the next funeral very quickly.

Completely tasteless and not acceptable.
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The vigilante streak runs strong on SportsJournalists.com.
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Justice is best served swiftly and in large quantities.

Seriously ... at the very least I'd take the damn Blackberry/phone away from the reporter. I suspect I would have help.
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See that's just wrong. Now, if you happened to accidentally bump into him and knock the phone from his hand and your foot spasms and kicks it into the grave ... well, these things happen.
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At a graveside service, anyway. Now, if you're at a Southern Baptist church ... oh, shit! I just kicked your phone into the Baptismal pool! Totally sorry, bro!

slappy4428 · Sep 11, 2008

VJ said:

At least when you do PR you know you're spewing BS for a living. This guy probably thinks he was doing a public service.
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Am sure his web editor got a woody out of it...

txsportsscribe · Sep 11, 2008

keep preaching mizzou. reporter? fired. editor? fired.

Your Huckleberry · Sep 11, 2008

txsportsscribe said:

keep preaching mizzou. reporter? fired. editor? fired.
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Are you saying they were fired? Because I hope to hell they were.

armageddon · Sep 11, 2008

Gomer said:

I won't defend twittering at a funeral in this manner, but I look at it as someone pushing the envelope of new media - too far in this case. It's not as though this sort of thing shouldn't be attempted in the future, but this is clearly a bad example of how to do it.

You've got to find the line and nudge it once in a while, but never cross it. The RMN crossed it in this case. Hopefully others will look at the situation and learn from it.

Maybe you can twitter from a funeral, but be more human about it? Or maybe the lesson to be learned is that it's a flat-out mistake. Until someone else attempts to find out where the line's going to be, I'd prefer to reserve judgment on it. It's easy to have an emotional response but in the context of where the industry is going, it may be more valuable for journalists to step back and look at it from other viewpoints.
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I disagree with every breath in my decaying body. But rather than rant, I'll ask this:

Would you feel the same if the folks pushing the edge of the envelope were radio guys, play-by-play and analyst, providing live coverage of the funeral?

txsportsscribe · Sep 11, 2008

Re: Rocky Mountain News "tweets" dead boy's funeral, now (thankfully) being sava

Your Huckleberry said:

txsportsscribe said:

keep preaching mizzou. reporter? fired. editor? fired.
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Are you saying they were fired? Because I hope to hell they were.
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nope, i'm saying they need to be fired. this makes me sick.

waterytart · Sep 11, 2008

Re: Rocky Mountain News "tweets" dead boy's funeral, now (thankfully) being sava

I would be very interested to see a matrix for how the posters on this thread break down on "it's despicable / it wasn't handled perfectly but they'll do better" and "parents / childless".

Mizzou and I would usually have trouble agreeing on what day of the week it is, but he has this nailed.

Vigilantism, Ace? Allow me to suggest that Mssrs. Temple and Morson should never touch this topic again until they've had a reporter tweet their own child's funeral. For the record, I'll hope that's never.

buckweaver · Sep 11, 2008

Re: Rocky Mountain News "tweets" dead boy's funeral, now (thankfully) being sava

waterytart said:

"parents / childless".
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Please, dear god, let us not turn this into another i-have-procreated-so-my-opinion-is-more-valid-than-yours thread again. I think we've had enough. Pretty please. :-\

We've all had loved ones die -- death is universal for everybody. So is grieving. And there's plenty of issues to discuss here without getting into THAT debate again.

Your Huckleberry · Sep 11, 2008

This has disgusted me from the minute I read it. And I don't have children, and I'm offended that you seem to think someone has to have a family to half a heart or a sympathetic bone in their body.

All you have to have is a soul. Do you?

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