Stranger Than Fiction

In the age of instant information, the media are under constant pressure to be the first to break a story. In their haste to produce news quick, sometimes facts go unchecked. And apparently, that’s okay.

With the downsizing of reporting staff, it’s not uncommon for one reporter to be responsible for writing about multiple topics with which he may not be familiar. Combine this with the plethora of social media vehicles that offer more rapid, democratized distribution channels than ever, and it's not only possible for incorrect information to get published, but to proliferate in a matter of seconds.

After the New York Times plagiarism scandal in 2003, where reporter Jayson Blair blatantly fabricated details and stole information for at least 36 of the 73 articles he wrote for the national newsdesk - one would think the media might be a little more buttoned up in terms of journalistic integrity and responsibility. Not so.

To test today's media efficacy, an Irish college student recently altered what many media and professionals consider a reliable reference - Wikipedia. When a famous composer Maurice Jarre passed away, the student purposefully misquoted the deceased and added the “fact” to Jarre’s entry in Wikipedia. To their credit: Wikipedia’s editors caught the non-referenceable statement and removed it, but it wasn’t before other reporters had read the inspiring, yet false, quote and reprinted it as their own – multiple times.

"I am 100 percent convinced that if I hadn't come forward, that quote would have gone down in history as something Maurice Jarre said, instead of something I made up," the student said. "It would have become another example where, once anything is printed enough times in the media without challenge, it becomes fact."

An even more grievous case of un-fact checking occurred In the case of Bob DeWitt, a patient who received a cardiac medical device to help his condition. The media began running Bob's inspiring story and miraculous recovery in January 2009 and didn't stop picking up the story until April 2009. The good news: more people learned about the amazing new technology that sustained Bob's life after his battle with severe heart failure. The bad news: Ever in-search of new content and feel-good health care pieces, no one bothered to check in with Bob to see how he was doing. Bob passed away in early February, shortly after the first time his story ran.

The most recent occurrence of the media’s preference for speed over accuracy occurred last Thursday when KNX 1070 NewsRadio interrupted a segment regarding the "Life and Times of Farah Fawcett" to announce that Michael Jackson had been rushed to the hospital and was pronounced dead shortly thereafter. Their source? TMZ.com.

The news, unfortunately, turned out to be true and KNX ending up breaking the story before anyone else – which, of course, is their top priority. Still, it’s a sad commentary of journalism today when KNX, "Southern California's most trusted and honored news radio station," considers a celebrity gossip and entertainment site as a credible source of information.

Photo credit: Super School University