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TMZ is the most trusted name in news

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by poindexter, Jan 27, 2020.

Page 5 of 6
  1. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    In the case of the ABC reporter, Greg Gutman, he fucked up. He repeated a rumor. He didn't outright say that all of the daughter's were on board for what it is worth. Verbatim, what he said on the air was, "The fact that four of his children are believed to be on that helicopter with him, all daughters, one of them a newborn, is simply devastating. ... Hoping that this is not the case, but, you know, from the police reports right now, it appears that Kobe Bryant is down in that helicopter.” Unfortunately, that led to some of the ABC affiliates picking up what he had said and claiming without any qualifier that all of his daughters were also on board. There is no excuse for that, but the reason is that ABC has a news division and it has a lot of disparate affiliates. Nationally, a reporter should have never gone on the air with a rumor that way, and I am sure they are dealing with it. The affiliates. ... it's really hard to control all of them and how they report things in real time that way.

    In the case of NBC, I don't know what wrong, but when they first reported that five were dead, they attributed it to the LA County Sheriffs Department. I have no idea if they were getting erroneous info or if they didn't actually confirm it, but in a situation like that if a law enforcement agency confirms something like that in real time, it adds up how they might have just trusted it without any other confirmation. Again, not an excuse, but it's probably not the case that they were just making stuff up out of thin air.
     
    The Big Ragu, Jan 28, 2020
    #49
  2. poindexter

    poindexter Well-Known Member

    So they have standards. Until they don't. Which seems like happens every single time.
    Okay, I'm bowing out of this thread. Just like I see my dad now when I look in the mirror, I am seeing YF when i post on this thread.
     
    poindexter, Jan 28, 2020
    #50
  3. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    You can have standards and screw up sometimes. It's not like I am an apologist for ABC News. I am not a news person or a broadcast person. But I think you are being a bit strident about this.

    You can not look at an ABC News reporter repeating a rumor on air during a fast-breaking story (a fuck up in the moment, not them throwing their standards aside) and it leading to a lot of misinformation getting repeated. ... and then compare ABC News to TMZ. TMZ doesn't even aspire to those standards. It will pay sources for a story just to be able to attribute something juicy or salacious to SOMEONE. Never mind that the payment makes it more likely that the person will make stuff up or exaggerate. They might care about getting it right on a superficial basis, but at the end of the day the salacious headline trumps everything.
     
    The Big Ragu, Jan 28, 2020
    #51
  4. Fredrick

    Fredrick Well-Known Member

    Anybody who said all daughters were on the helicopter should be fired. Case closed. Especially in this era when people are expendable and being laid off left and right. At some point news has to get where it's accurate again. If you want to be first to report, fine. If you get anything wrong, you're fired! Case closed.
     
    Fredrick, Jan 29, 2020
    #52
  5. Scout

    Scout Well-Known Member

    In this day and age, there are two types of news reporting services: fast and then comprehensive.

    TMZ is the king of the fast. They pay for that honor and I don’t have a problem with that. I know many of you do. Information has value. It honestly doesn’t make any sense to give it away for free. TMZ is also very accurate. They would get killed on here if they were not. The only thing they got wrong the other day was saying all his daughters survived. So their fuck up was in the side of caution. I think they are much more than the National Enquirer. I think they are more the NY Post with a checkbook.

    Once the dust has settled and I want good solid details I go to NPR. I choose not to read a multitude of sources because I think reading the same thing over and over skews perspective. I like NPR’s news judgement also.
     
    Scout, Jan 29, 2020
    #53
    sgreenwell likes this.
  6. Regan MacNeil

    Regan MacNeil Well-Known Member

    TMZ is not even close to the most-trusted name in news.

    A simple Google search of "times tmz was wrong" returns about 2,430,000 results.

    'We got this wrong': TMZ offers rare apology to T.I. for story on sister's autopsy results

    The 10 Biggest TMZ False Reports

    TMZ has to retract another report, this time with the wrong Yasiel Puig bar fight video

    Those are just from the first page of results.

    When Rolling Stone, or ABC News or CNN or Dan Rather get something wrong, people remember it. It ruins careers and damages reputations.

    Why isn't that the case with TMZ?
     
    Regan MacNeil, Jan 29, 2020
    #54
  7. CD Boogie

    CD Boogie Well-Known Member

    Maybe they haven’t fucked up with the stories that would anger the wrong segment. TI? Yasiel Puig? If they incorrectly said Beyoncé had died, every single employee would be murdered by the Bey Hive, right down to the janitors.
     
    CD Boogie, Jan 29, 2020
    #55
  8. Pilot

    Pilot Well-Known Member

    "Most trusted" is a funny way to frame it, IMO. I'd certainly say it's trusted with big stuff like this. I know when I saw "TMZ: Kobe Bryant dead in helicopter crash" I didn't doubt it at all. But I wouldn't have doubted it coming from any of maybe two dozen news sites. Which one is "most" trusted? I don't know.

    I think most sites try to source stuff as well as they can. I assume TMZ makes it known to all potential hospital workers and first responders that any news tip can earn them $1,000+, and I assume that's where this came from. Everyone seems to get some initial details wrong, but unless they're just aggressively wrong — "Kobe died in a boat crash!" — nothing short of missing on a big headline is going to shake my trust in really any top news outlets, i.e., if Kobe were alive, I'd trust TMZ less the next time I saw they had a big story.
     
    Pilot, Jan 29, 2020
    #56
    PaperClip529 and sgreenwell like this.
  9. Pilot

    Pilot Well-Known Member

    There's only so much reporters can do. They obviously weren't hiking up to the crash site and counting bodies themselves, so they were all probably relying on the same half dozen sources. I don't really begrudge them getting that level of stuff wrong. You see the same thing in mass shootings all the time. How many times have we been told there were two gunmen? Breaking news is usually coming from police scanners, police sources, etc. I understand it's rough, and so long as there was actually a shooting, I won't hold it against them.
     
    Pilot, Jan 29, 2020
    #57
    sgreenwell likes this.
  10. MileHigh

    MileHigh Moderator Staff Member

    MileHigh, Jan 29, 2020
    #58
  11. Readallover

    Readallover Active Member

    TMZ does a great job and is reflective of today’s journalism. I find it much more reprehensible that Dan Rather is still employed after his false reporting on former President Bush.
     
    Readallover, Jan 29, 2020
    #59
  12. Desk_dude

    Desk_dude Member

    The five dead was coming from the sheriff's office.
     
    Desk_dude, Jan 29, 2020
    #60
    poindexter likes this.
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