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Integrity in Journalism Lives on Adrants.com
November 29, 2005
Steve Hall of Adrants.com shows that integrity in journalism still lives...after making a rather significant mistake on his blog yesterday concerning MWW Group, he immediately corrected his posting, not with some feeble or hidden correction, but with an entire rewrite and apology. Steve's actions are admirable and an example of how the press should handle all corrections...not by posting some obscure correction that no one will read while the incorrect story is left to remain on databases throughout the Internet, but by fully correcting it, and where technology makes it possible, removing the item, or at a minimum, adding in-line corrections to the original story.
Too often corrections are made many hours and even days later...and, in almost all cases, the original incorrect article is left on the publication’s database without even in-line corrections, leaving the original incorrect version as the definitive article of record, while the correction or corrected version is left to the reader to discover and piece together themselves. This often leads to inaccurate information being repeated and even being accepted as "fact."
Honest mistakes happen...but, instead of trying to defend their coverage as if admitting a mistake was a badge of dishonor, journalists should follow the lead of Steve Hall, thereby making their reporting substantially more fair, accurate and ethical.
Posted by Michael Kempner at November 29, 2005 04:46 PM
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Comments
Couldn't agree more with your position on immediate and well-positioned corrections, and the effect of their rarity on how people are losing faith in journalism.
I don't know if you saw today's "Washington Post," but Tina Brown had an excellent article on anonymous sources, the bizarre media cannibalism frenzy against their own, and how that too is affecting the public's attitude towards journalists. It's at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/30/AR2005113002399.html
As PR people, our credibility and our ability to be successful is closely linked to that of the media.
(Quick favorite story. In the 80s, I was battling daily with a "Wall Street Journal" reporter over a major crisis my company was facing. Our battles were always professional and actually fun, although he was very good & kept me dancing. One day he published something inaccurate & I called him on it. The correction appeared the next day on page 2 & our stock rose 3 points. Alas, but he was a rarity in the business.)
Posted by: Mark Schannon at December 1, 2005 03:48 PM
Except for where he attacks his readers on this adrant when he makes a bogus claim...
http://www.adrants.com/2007/03/nokia-n95-wants-to-be-iphone-might-actual.php
Posted by: Tom Gallow at March 14, 2007 01:51 PM
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