In the Race to Be First, News Can Get It Wrong

Opinion
by Alex Greenwood
The 24-hour news cycle has some benefits (though I’m hard-pressed to tell you what those benefits are), but the drawbacks are glaring when it comes to the race to be first. It seems that many news outlets would rather be first than right. There are dozens of examples of this, but the most current involves the Asiana Airlines crash fake pilot name debacle:

I have to agree with the gentleman in the video. Did the anchor bother to read her copy before she read it live? Yes, I know–the NTSB apparently verified the names (a summer intern said so, no less), but really? Really?

I was a newspaper reporter and news radio host before I transitioned into PR several years ago. I certainly made mistakes, but not because of a rush to get the story out first. Of course we wanted to “scoop” the competition, but never at the cost of making fools of ourselves or of making a news story worse by the act of incorrectly reporting it.

This is a serious concern. Every high-profile mistake like this damages the credibility of the news media, and a thriving democracy needs the Fourth Estate. But the “TMZ-ing” and ratings-motivated focus of the news is destroying its credibility and value.

Perhaps it’s time for the news media to take a long look at what’s most important: a culture centered on “being first at all costs” or a culture of reporting actual, verifiable, factual news.