A television station runs a photo of the mayor and wrongly states she's flashing a gang sign. TV reporters share photos of themselves on social media appearing to make light of serious stories. Two Chicago stations can't get the facts right on a jail sentence. What a year for …
When the actor Paul Walker died in a car crash, the Associated Press reported a touching tribute from his Fast and Furious co-star, Vin Diesel. "Brother I will miss you very much," said therealvindiesel's message on Instagram. "Heaven has gained a new Angel." The quote drew …
Another breaking news story, another list of news media mistakes. Same old, same old, right? Except this time, a new question came up: Are breaking news mistakes even worth covering anymore? That question raised by Politico media columnist Dylan Byers came on a day when multiple …
When you get something wrong in a news story, how do you make it right? Newsroom policies--if they even exist--usually cover the timing and placement of corrections in legacy media and online, but social media are rarely mentioned. That's a big oversight, considering that errors …
by Steve Safran I want to tell you a little bit about working in local news. It's messy and complicated. It's filled with drudgery. It's overnights for years without recognition. It's reporters who start in small markets with pay so low they take a second job, usually …
CNN is taking a lot of grief today, and deservedly so. The network's well-respected Twitter feed for breaking news, @CNNbrk, posted the first tweet on the Supreme Court's decision on President Obama's health care law at 10:08 a.m. Unfortunately, it was absolutely wrong. The post followed …
You might think that this is yet another rant on how technology is putting pressure on journalists to publish more quickly and pushing what's published out to more people, more easily than ever before. But two things happened this week that made me think that we …
Information travels so fast these days that it's hard to keep track of where it came from. Technology makes plagiarism and deception a snap. Online text can be copied and pasted in seconds, photos can be manipulated and no one may be the wiser. But …
Who would have ever imagined needing to advise NPR to slow down? The public radio network has been known for many things since it launched four decades ago, but speed wasn't one of them. Lately, though, NPR has tripped up more than once because it …
Forgive me for tooting my own horn, but I'm pleased to announce the publication of the second edition of my book, Advancing the Story: Broadcast Journalism in a Multimedia World, co-authored with Deb Wenger. It's available now from CQ Press or Amazon, and we hope you'll …
Some people set their sights on the news business at an early age; others just stumble into it. But to stay in it and be happy for more than 30 years takes a combination of grit, talent and luck. Laurie Hertzel had all three. Her book, …
How many news sites make it easy for readers to report errors? Very few, according to MediaBugs, a pilot project in the San Francisco area that's trying to hold the news media accountable and get them to fix "correctable mistakes." The group reports that three-quarters …
