One of my less proud moments happened in 2006 when I authorised publication on a major newspaper’s website of a breaking news story that former South African president FW de Klerk had died. It was a brief follow-up to a story that he had been taken up in hospital. For those of you who don’t know, three years later he is still with us.
It doesn’t matter that the “rumour” I acted on was passed on from a senior sub-editor, the fact-checkers in the paper’s newsroom. Or that they were so wide-spread that his wife also landed in hospital from stress. It’s the ultimate journalistic sin to go “to print” with a statement like that unless it has been confirmed by an official.
So I have sympathy with all those online editors at news organisations that had to make the right call last week with the passing of Michael Jackson. It’s not that they didn’t know about the story, it’s just that they had to be responsible with the available information.
Tweet from CNN says Michael Jackson rushed to hospital - after his death was already reported.
It took hours for any “serious” news site to pick up the story – after having been reported on two entertainment sites, Wikipedia and Twitter within a relatively short space of time. In fact, CNNbrk tweeted that Jackson had been rushed to hospital well after TMZ.com reported his death.
Understandably, no “serious” news organisation could risk their reputation by going live with the story until verified. Ironically, that very golden rule of journalism is now casting doubt over their reputation.
As journalism educator Steve Buttry put it:
Should Washington Post and NY Times rebrand their news alerts as news “reminders”?
So, what are the lessons for newsrooms?
1. Find the balance: Sure, you can’t afford to report rumours. But consider what it does to your reputation being over three hours late with a major breaking story in a changing news consumption landscape.
2. Monitor trending topics: Make sure your reporters are watching their beats on trending services like Twitscoop, which is also accessible from within TweetDeck. By the time the CNNbrk hospital-update went out, there were already 2,000 mentions per minute of his death on Twitter.
3. Identify the story of the moment: Is the fact that there are wide-spread rumours of a star’s death not a story in itself?
4. Match the medium with the story cycle: Use your Twitter breaking news account to put out an alert about “unconfirmed reports” and keep readers updated with details as they unfold. Show them you’re working on it. Once confirmed as fact, move over to the website.
The problem is that a print mindset still largely rules online newsrooms.
