Mark Potts criticizes breathless misreporting by journalist-bloggers:
We hold bloggers to somewhat different standards than journalists, because the vast majority of them aren't, well, journalists. But is it too much to ask that journalist-bloggers retain a modicum of professional ethics about what they post and how they post it? Everybody who's been involved in stories that get caught up in the media blogosphere vortex seems to have a horror tale about a journalist-blogger posting something without checking facts or asking for comment—or jumping to conclusions based on personal biases. It happens way too often, and it's just sloppy. And when it comes from a journalist-blogger writing under the imprimatur of a journalism site, it's inexcusable.
There's a great line from All the President's Men that applies perfectly here, as it does to all journalism: "If you're going to hype it, hype it with the facts."
Comments
I think it is too much to
I think it is too much to ask normal people to live up to journalistic standards when it comes to their blogs. I'm taking Jcourses right now, and journalism students are having problems with cutting out bias and getting their facts right. I predict that soon there will be a huge jump in litigation against the huge amount of people on the internet saying what they want, without regard to the truth. Blogs have become the newest form of gossip mongering.
As for journalists forwarding factual errors and bias on their blogs, journalists have always printed some factual errors. It's whether or not they correct themselves later that's important. And, journalists are giddy with excitement over being able to vocalize their own views about stories in their blogs. They probably don't realize most people don't care what their personal views are, especially if it puts the facts of the story at risk.
Emotion is what attracts readers to blogs
This is heresy, of course, but I believe it's time to re-think the whole concept of objective journalism and how journalists interact with readers.
Why are blogs attracting readers while newspapers are driving them away? I think the answer is emotion. Readers respond to emotion. Our hearts go out to people who are caught up in tragic or life-changing events, but journalists pride themselves on telling emotional stories in dry ways. A commitment to objective journalism removes the bias from reporting, but it also sucks out the emotion.
A blogger is free to be emotional with his writing. He's allowed to feel the triumph of a noble accomplishment or express disgust at a horrible crime.
This puts the blogger on the same level with the reader, as if the writer and the reader are experiencing the event together, as human beings. This is what makes blogs compelling, and it's precisely what makes news dull.
I think it's actually gotten to the point where readers have become suspicious of objectivity and hostile to people who hide behind it. What's wrong with you that you can't feel the emotion of this moment?
What started out as a journalistic virtue is now driving people away from us, and bloggers are picking up the slack.
I think we're actually on the verge of changing how people consume news, of changing their expectations. We've trained readers to accept bare bones limited stories, containing only the facts we can prove.
They hear rumors about hot cases in tabloids and on TV, and then, a few days later, their newspaper sifts through them and gives the "authoritative" version of what happened. Of course, by that time, people have already made up their minds based on other sources, and the whole case is old news.
I think news stories of the future are going to be a mix of facts, rumor and speculation.
Our credibility will be measured, not by how accurate the first story is, but by how fast we correct ourselves, when our first round of assumptions turns out to be wrong.
Readers will learn to be skeptical of initial reports and tolerant of error, just like they are in the blog world.
So by this standard, my question is not, what did this blogger get wrong? The question is, how fast did he correct himself, once his mistake was made obvious?
Re: Slashdot
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&...
Hype or fact
I agree we have enough rumors. I think bloggers should post fact confronting the garbage coming from media and government. If we bloggers have an "opinion" on the fact we can say so and post it as such. Certainly we can be emotional and media can too. Journalists are often hampered by space which limits interaction. Perhaps the media will allow journalists a bit of slack. I prefer "news" with a comment section, blog type. Bruce