Okay, so here’s the consequence of emasculating the basic tenets of journalism: that story that made the rounds (I saw it in at least three places, including two mainstream broadsheet sites), about how McCain’s aides dissed Palin’s stupidity—turns out to have been a hoax. An obvious, “will-you-idiots-pay-attention-I’m-having-you-on” hoax.
What are the basic tenets, you ask? Why, how about: you don’t run with a story until it’s been confirmed by two independent sources—besides the one you got it from originally? Or: if statements are attributed to known persons (e.g., McCain aides), you pick up the phone & call to verify?
No, in this blow-dried journalist-as-celebrity, gotta-get-something-anything-up-on-the-site age, even MSNBC & New Republic published (apparently with straight faces) the codswallop about Palin not knowing that Africa is a, you know, continent.
I don’t really find it surprising. Ever since every TV report started including the shot of the reporter earnestly asking a question of a story source, I knew we were headed to hell.
The slide to Fox News was entirely predictable.
The Internet, while opening up the field to diverse viewpoints, hasn’t done a lot for improving the quality of reports. Instead of mainstream news inspiring the bloggers to better things, the blogosphere has dragged down the established media.
Well, while I’m sorry to see that the LA Times was one of the suckers, I have to say it’s not a huge surprise—after all the Tribune Co.’s budget cuts ripped the heart out of news rooms around the country, no one should find it astounding that dubious “facts” slipped through the system.
But none of those old guys manning the slot at the paper where I used to work would have let anything as egregious as that “Africa’s a continent?” crap into print.
God rest their blue-penciling souls.
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