http://climateprogress.org/2006/10/10/the-new-york-times-and-ap-can-do-better/ The Latest on Climate Science, Solutions, and Politics Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:57:18 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.1 http://climateprogress.org/2006/10/10/the-new-york-times-and-ap-can-do-better/#comment-109 Fergus Brown Wed, 11 Oct 2006 09:20:33 +0000 http://climateprogress.org/2006/10/10/the-new-york-times-and-ap-can-do-better/#comment-109 This is an interesting case of how the media can work. The same error (of attribution) appears on Reuters, The IHT, TerraDaily, Agence France Presse. Several of the internet-based comments are more or less direct lifts of the AP release from a couple of days ago. What this does do is raise the question of whether any of these journalism-based organisations actually checked the facts before rushing into print. It also demonstrates how an example of misreporting can be escalated rapidly by non-judgmental repetition. You are right, that in this case it probably isn't a huge deal (there aren't many surprises in the press release, after all), but when an important paper or finding is released, if it is inaccurately reported on one of the news networks or agencies, the 'error' can escalate in no time, until it is the original report which is the 'facts', and the original material becomes lost in the 'rubbish'. An important observation for us all to note if we want to understand the scale of difficulty involved in publicising the truth (as opposed to the 'story'). Regards, This is an interesting case of how the media can work. The same error (of attribution) appears on Reuters, The IHT, TerraDaily, Agence France Presse. Several of the internet-based comments are more or less direct lifts of the AP release from a couple of days ago. What this does do is raise the question of whether any of these journalism-based organisations actually checked the facts before rushing into print. It also demonstrates how an example of misreporting can be escalated rapidly by non-judgmental repetition. You are right, that in this case it probably isn’t a huge deal (there aren’t many surprises in the press release, after all), but when an important paper or finding is released, if it is inaccurately reported on one of the news networks or agencies, the ‘error’ can escalate in no time, until it is the original report which is the ‘facts’, and the original material becomes lost in the ‘rubbish’. An important observation for us all to note if we want to understand the scale of difficulty involved in publicising the truth (as opposed to the ’story’).
Regards,

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