Osama, Obama...It was an Honest Mistake, Sheesh

The old saying "a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes" is definitely applicable in today's media. Most journalists don't set out to deliberately mislead their audience, but facts do get distorted or omitted, names are mangled and all a journalist can do is give a sheepish "oops!", or print a correction in the next day's newspaper.

Sorry About Calling you a Terrorist. We're Cool, Right?
Craig Silverman says the difference between a slip and a mistake (as defined by Donald Norman) is intent. Mistakes are a conscious wrong decision. Slips are errors made despite having the proper information. "Slips" and the offender's half-assed apologies were rampant during last year's US presidential elections, with little more than brief public outrage.

Silverman says these can be avoided or at least minimized. Sometimes the damage has already been done and bringing further attention to the mistake just make matters worse. Holding journalists responsible for their carelessness (Dan Rather, anyone?) is harsh, but sometimes necessary to reinforce the importance of good journalistic practices.

Blame the Internet
The media has several filters to limit the number of errors that are published. But editors can't catch everything. Journalists must work under deadline, so sometimes the time just isn't there to be as thorough as they would like. Throw in 24 hour news stations and the internet, rife with bloggers to whom breaking a story (and creating a name for themselves) takes precedence over ethical journalistic practice, and journalists are under a lot more pressure to produce quickly.

Bloggers criticized Time Out New York for reporting Natasha Richardson's death before an official statement had been made. Ironically, the class acts at TMZ.com opted out of the speculation game, preferring to wait and report actual facts. What is this world wide web coming to when T(we publish the identities of sex crime victims)MZ shows more restraint than real media outlets?


J-school drums the importance of accuracy into its students' heads from their very first class. Don't be a fluck-up: double check sources and name spellings and you might find and retain gainful employment as a reputable journalist.