“Our sources can now confirm: Joseph Vincent Paterno has passed away tonight at the age of 85.”
That was the tweet sent by online news organization Onward State — run by students at Penn State University.
CBS Sports then published its own obituary of Paterno, but did not cite a single source initially. It later added Onward State as a source.
As of 11:30 p.m. Saturday, CBS Sports had this headline: “Reports of Joe Paterno’s death refuted by family.” Paterno wasn’t dead then.
So, what went wrong?
For starters, young journalists were quick to jump on a report without having clear sources.
Second, a supposed reputable, professional, global news organization (CBS) also jumped the gun without any credible sources.
In a world where a news report can be reposted hundreds and thousands of times in just a few seconds, accuracy seems to come second to immediacy.
Add to this the fact that every Tom, Dick and Harry wants to report news to their friends and followers. We’ve got a big problem on our hands, folks.
As a journalist and (in full disclosure) a lifelong fan of Joe Paterno, I was hesitant to post a tweet or message to Facebook about the legendary coach’s death.
What happened to waiting to confirm a report?
To its credit, the Associated Press had issued no reports. In a world of immediacy, the AP often is ridiculed for sometimes delaying to rush a report to the news.
An AP official tweeted this: “Rush by some to declare Joe Paterno dead, since denied by family spokesman, as reported by @AP, reminds me of Rep. Giffords shooting.”
People expect news to be reported quickly, so the constant tweeting and retweeting of what was found to be false reports added to frustrations.
I wish media folks would slow down a bit and actually source facts before reporting anything. But I also wish non-media folks would slow down a bit, too, and let reporters do their work.
I was saddened to see Onward State get this wrong. They were hesitant to report anything until they could confirm it, and when they reported it, I believed them. They have been N incredible resource these past few awful weeks. And having watched first hand certain mass media types’ insistence to be first instead of right completely destroy Penn State and Joe Paterno… well, they learned a very humbling and humiliating lesson tonight. The CBSs and ESPNs who couldn’t care less? To me, that’s different. I trust that student paper. They trusted the wrong source.
Posted by Kelly | January 22, 2012, 5:20 am