This Reuters article on CBS and the memos puts some distance in observations about blogs and the media.
This is such a hot topic in the US election.
It would be interesting to research prior major media mistakes, say over the past 20 years.
Phone calls articles and letters to an editor or news department can acheive the same thing. CBS made a mistake - every media outlet in the world makes mistakes. Blogs are playing a part in quick correction and in very quick and public correction.
To place too much emphasis on blogs competing with or replacing major media would be a mistake. I don’t see them as adversarial, but that is not how this and other encounters have played out. And I don’t think it will stop any time soon.
When a blogger makes a mistake, the correction (if made) pretty much stays with the blog. CBS and other media outlets know they doesn’t have that luxury.
Many bloggers are wanna bes and that’s fine, I hope some of them make it.
When they do, they’ll learn that being shot at because they are part of the messenger machine is a lot more stressful than they can currently comphrehend. It is hubris to crow too loudly. If people chose to see blogs and media as competition and not somewhat complimentary, in this cynical world the credibility of both will suffer.
To continue to chew on mistakes, to see consipiracies - is to deny that anyone of us can be conned as individuals or a group. Media is run by human beings. Just like blogs.
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Absolutely.
“Old media’ makes mistakes — and is accountable for them. But blogs make mistakes too. I’m not imagining all those “see we told you they’d find wmd” posts I remember from just after the end of the war, am I?
The error by CBS did come down to slipshod reference checking. It wasn’t that a craftily counterfeited reference that could have fooled anybody (or most people) deceived them. They failed to exercise a professional level of care in verifying their sources.
CBS’s error is a lesson in the dangers of having an agends. They wanted a story like the one they got, and so they rushed it to publication.
Cars are driven by human beings, but vehicular homicide is still a crime. Taxes are prepared by human being, and tax evasion is a crime. Surgeries are performed by human beings, but doctors can lose their licenses when their procedures are negligent. Being human doesn’t give a person a right to abdicate responsibility for observing professional and ethically correct standards that safeguard other human beings.
Whatever you think of George Bush, there has not been evidence to show he avoided his required service, and CBS’s story is the sort of thing that can ruin a man’s life. They weren’t reporting on a mistake or a bad policy from George Bush. They were charging him with gross deception and the failure to fulfill an obligation for which he was legally responsible. And they failed to check their sources.
I think it is time to crow loud and long so that all journalists: professional and wannabes, will remember that maintaining the ethical and professional standards of their trade will not only save people from becoming victims of journalists, it will save journalists from becoming deceptive front men for political machines.
Fair enough Jeri, but who were the CBS producers and team fronting for?
Are you saying the a whole crew that worked on that story were fronts for someone?
I don’t know how quickly the story was rushed into production. I do know a news magazine is under a lot of pressure.
>>>who were the CBS producers and team fronting for?
Their own self-interests in releasing a blockbuster story about a powerful man. A successful story like that keeps power and influence with the journalists at CBS. They remain a force to be reckoned with. Both political parties will jockey for time slots with them. In that sense, they become (or remain) a major player in US politics. CBS’s team of news journalists has been the most influential journalism team in US political races for decades.
>>Are you saying the a whole crew that worked on that story were fronts for someone?
Here, let me re-quote some salient lines for you from my previous comment so that you can get clear on exactly who I was talking about:
“I think it is time to crow loud and long
so that all *J*O*U*R*N*A*L*I*S*T*S*:
professional and wannabes, will
remember that maintaining the ethical
and professional standards of their
trade will not only save people from
becoming victims of *J*O*U*R*N*A*L–
*I*S*T*S*, it will save J*O*U*R*N–
*A*LI*S*T*S* from becoming deceptive
front men for political machines.
I hope that clarifies that I was not discussing all the camera men, the technicians, the make-up people, and the guys who hold the little boards that clap. I was talking about journalists.
>>>I don’t know how quickly the story was rushed into production. I do know a news magazine is under a lot of pressure.
Time constraints are never justification for prematurely launching a story that can destroy a man. If I get an e-mail telling me you had an affair 20 years ago or you embezzled from your company and I rush it onto my blog without checking because my readership is down and nobody is checking my link friom my blog to my bookstore, I have yielded to pressure. I have also grossly and unjustly wronged you and printed something that is simply without evidence. The fact that I was under pressure could never justify such an action. It’s wrong to do; it’s wrong to do; it’s simply wrong.
Okay Jeri:
I think I’m hearing you say that CBS is a democractic outlet, hellbent on taking republicans down.
And I do stand corrected. Time constraints are not an excuse. Been there, done that also. And I was wrong. But I have also been attacked and threatened when the facts and the story were valid.
I’m inclined to take any election coverage with several grains of salt.:^)
You are saying CBS acted in their own interests with an agenda to take President Bush down.
And the population called them on it.
And they publically apologized.
Can slanted media coverage ruin innocent lives?
Yes.
Looking from the outside in, the memo story wasn’t a ‘blockbuster’ any more than the swift boat material or anything else this past year in regards to the election.
The coverage, amount and direction is bizarre, like media, campaign workers, politicans etc are consumed by their own feeding frenzy.
But that’s me looking from the outside in.
I don’t have an emotional investment in US election coverage, none in media and their mistakes or agendas.
I think Dan Rather and whoever else rushed this to air are getting way to much credit and attention. They have power, but not that much power in an active and attentive population.
Any media outlet should rightfully be called on sloppiness and error. They have been, but perhaps in this election it isn’t enough for some.
What ‘punishment’ is suitable for Rather and his cronies?
Bene,
You’ll agree, I’m sure, that there’s a difference between making a mistake and cheating. If I get a math sum incorrect because I forgot to carry a one, I make a mistake. If I get a math sum incorrect because I read the wrong answer I had inked on the inside of my arm, I am cheating.
Journalists should adhere to a set of ethical standards for their profession, and this set of standards should cover things like verifying sources. In the CBS case, it appears very much like they did a slipshod job of verifying their sources. Couple this example, in which they appeared overly eager to unearth something that happened 30 years ago, with Rather’s earlier statements about Kerry’s Vietnam experiences–that he didn’t understand why people are so all fired up to unearth stuff that happened 30 years ago–and it begins to look more to me like cheating than it does like a mistake.
I completely agree with your math Roy:^)
If Rather and his crew ‘cheated’ then CBS needs to sit down with it’s news staff and go through standards and ethics 101. As a media corporation they need to make decisions in their best interests and in the interests of their audience.
It more than appears from many sources that at the least it was slipshod.
I wonder how many emails and phone calls CBS got?
I haven’t tallied nor could I tally how many bloggers swarmed over this.
CBS acknowledged their errors. They apologized.
I have a couple of serious questions.
Now what?
What ‘punishment’ is suitable for slipshod?
What punishment is suitable for deliberate and willful cheating?
I think the truth lies somewhere inbetween. I believe an organization can be conned as much as I believe individuals can.
And I admit, I don’t get the trips into the past.
It’s a great distraction from present issues.