The article about fact checking; We Stand Corrected: When Good Journalists Make Stupid Mistakes- is a good read, and I honestly believe that the website Regret the Error, is actually performing a public service by putting all journalistic errors and corrections in one easy to access place. It is important because while mistakes are easily made, it is difficult to alert people to the corrections of mistakes.
However, I’m actually alarmed at the fact that journalists even need to be reminded that it is okay to make mistakes, and that they need to be told that it isn’t taboo to come forward-rather than to try to cover up or deny an error.
As is quoted in the article, “The first thing to do is create an organizational culture that values error prevention and accepts that corrections are an important part of journalism. Get rid of the stigma of error that causes people to want to hide their mistakes and not learn from them.”
How can this even be? In a domain where truth, and trustworthiness is engrained in everything that we do-how can a journalist lie or ignore an error?! A journalist should know better than anyone else the ways of humans, and that no one is perfect, and that errors are normal. Perhaps instead of correction of errors, we should focus on the correction of the mentality of the industry!
However, I’m actually alarmed at the fact that journalists even need to be reminded that it is okay to make mistakes, and that they need to be told that it isn’t taboo to come forward-rather than to try to cover up or deny an error.
As is quoted in the article, “The first thing to do is create an organizational culture that values error prevention and accepts that corrections are an important part of journalism. Get rid of the stigma of error that causes people to want to hide their mistakes and not learn from them.”
How can this even be? In a domain where truth, and trustworthiness is engrained in everything that we do-how can a journalist lie or ignore an error?! A journalist should know better than anyone else the ways of humans, and that no one is perfect, and that errors are normal. Perhaps instead of correction of errors, we should focus on the correction of the mentality of the industry!
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