What should journalists, news organisations, and viewers do when false stories are told?
What action should journalists and the outlets that employ them take when journalists tell incorrect or faulty stories? Like in the recent case of NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, who falsely recounted a story about reporting from Iraq in 2003. How should institutions and journalists react when this kind of thing occurs? Let's avoid deciding BW's future for him in our discussion.
They should first admit their mistake and correct it right away. (There is nothing to be ashamed of, everyone makes mistake. It’s the arrogant attitude that angers people.) And then, apologize heartily. Most people are very forgiving. Last, but not the least, donate a large amount of money to charity. And remember, never make the same mistake twice, learn from the lesson, stay low key. It’s not the smart way to get publicity.
Faulty stories are the norm...why would they do anything about it?
Ah! Playing devil's advocate. Stories that are not well researched are actually the norm.
"Not well researched" is one part of being faulty.
I disagree, Robert. There's an expectation in the industry that things be done right. It's not always the best stories, in fact it's often not. But getting something wrong is a reporter's worst nightmare.
It is a good thing JPac1 that it should be a reporter's worse nightmare. But if the source is wrong, maybe on purpose, then the report will be totally wrong unless other sources are involved. Hence research.
Rod, that's why more than one source is always needed, and cross-referencing information is a must. Journalism basics. When reporters don't follow those simple guidelines, it's always sad.
I agree JPac1. But shrinking funds and time limitations to get a story in can result in less and less cross-referencing. And yes it is sad.
The car accident that claims the life of a 3-year-old girl Allison Liao was misrepresented by the media initially. The truth was uncovered a year later when a video footage indicates the driver of a SUV was at fault, not the dead little girl, sad.
Research is one answer. Often false or misleading stories get out because there is a hidden agenda and news agencies don't always have the resources to uncover all the truth. Also on television there is too often a five minute or less window to get the story out there. Then the news is supposed to move on to the next story. This is fine when it comes to a cute puppy tale originally reported on facebook but not always so fine when the story is much more complex. Occasionally I get up really early in the morning for work, around four, and Good Morning America is on tele. They are definitely not geared for hard, penetrating news. The window for them is about two minutes at the most.
Exposing a false story with apologies is a daunting task and further revealing how it got out to the public even more so. There is a difference too between what should be done and what will be done. Apologies for misleading the public do get out but they also get buried. The internet, however, can make the burial of an apology more difficult so there is that. Gone are the days when an apology makes it to the back pages and are seen by very few people. Even so the reasons why this happened are explored often at the risk of the news organization's reputation. The need for commercial sponsorship can also enter the mix. If the 'mistake' happened due to the needs of covering up for a manufacturer then that is another can of very dubious worms. And that had happened in the USA as well as elsewhere.
It isn't always a case of false reporting but misleading reportage. Take the Cronulla riot that occurred in NSW, Australia. SBS and ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) would have the world believe that suddenly there was this rise of anti-Muslim feeling on these beaches. The truth is that the riot that did happen was the result of months of Muslim Youth picking on young women in summer. What were the women doing? They were simply wearing bikinis. Some of these women were as young as eleven and were treated to rude remarks about their bodies. A lot of people at Cronulla and in adjoining suburbs were outraged but also feeling helpless to act. Of course today with television it is politically correct to skip over the reasons behind the riot and just show the riot. In that way the Muslims who created the necessary animosity need not feel ashamed of themselves. Leaving details out because of hidden agendas such as political correctness can in fact be worse than lies.
The time constraints on stories are a problem, often making it very hard to tell a story. But viewers simply won't stay interested in a story if it goes on longer than a couple minutes. Unless, of course, we're talking documentary reporting.
I know I get that. To some extent I blame M television. Documentary reporting is great. Unfortunately really dumb reality shows have taken over the spots that should go to it.
Nowadays, what we see and hear on the news may not be the whole truth.Intentionally or not, People lie in public all the time, reporters, politicians, judges, lawyers,etc. We the viewers have to decide what's real, and not go by what they tell us.
by Mike Russo 13 months ago
A majority of the Grand Jury believes that perjury may have been committed by one or more of the witnesses testifying before itThe 26-member panel also rejected false claims from Mr Trump that the election had been rigged, saying it found "by a unanimous vote that no widespread fraud took...
by ga anderson 13 months ago
In its lawsuit against Fox News, Dominion Voting Systems (DVS) included very damaging text message excerpts from the top of the organization that seem to clearly show Fox was more concerned with ratings than the truth of their reporting and presentations.Here is what Google offers for details: Fox...
by Mike Russo 12 months ago
This is not only an admission of guilt for Fox News, but also includes Fox News broadcasters, Trump, Guiliani, Sydney Powell, et al.. This can also be used as evidence in Trump's claim that the election was rigged by Dominion. This raises the question, can certain forms of lying be charged as...
by Sharlee 4 years ago
CNN’s Jim Sciutto is in hot water for an anti-Trump report which the CIA and the White House condemned and deny.Jim Sciutto is under fire after the Central Intelligence Agency condemned his report that aired yesterday. The report claimed the CIA was forced to extract a CIA spy from Russia due to...
by Susannah Birch 12 years ago
In a thread a few days ago, a discussion began about accounts which have been here quite some time and have a lot of published hubs that are noticeably breaking Hubpages ToS. Despite the accounts being flagged repeatedly, the accounts and most of their hubs still remain. The staff answer to the...
by Kathleen Cochran 3 weeks ago
Here are the top 10 large journalistic brands where I (Paul Glader, a media scholar at The Berlin School of Creative Leadership) believe you can most often find real, reported facts:1. The New York TimesThis is the most influential newspaper in the U.S. in my view. Its editorial page and some of...
Copyright © 2024 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2024 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |