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27 Jan 2012 19:44

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Biz: CBS Sports fires blogger who flubbed Joe Paterno death report

  • Bad sourcing plus poor timing: Adam Jacobi took to Twitter earlier this afternoon to reveal that CBS Sports — which ran with a erroneous story that Joe Paterno had died hours before he actually did, based on a single tweet from a student Web site, originally linked to and otherwise unsourced (then retracted it, naming the source and initially refusing to take full credit for the error) — fired him over the incident. “In the end, CBS had to let me go for the Paterno story going out the way it did,” Jacobi wrote. “and I understand completely. Thanks, everyone, for reading.” The Washington Post’s Erik Wemple calls the move classy on Jacobi’s part, and an important line in the sand for CBS: “Not only does CBSSports.com put on notice its employees that multiple sourcing matters,” Wemple writes,”it puts on notice the entire industry.” While we don’t necessarily think Jacobi should’ve been fired, CBS made a good move, as it initially looked like they would let the sword fall onto Onward State. It would’ve been better if they took credit right away. (photo via Flickr user audreyjm529) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 Jan 2012 23:02

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U.S.: Gabrielle Giffords, one year later: How an error defined real-time news

  • The sausage was being made in front of our eyes, with all of the messiness that analogy implies.
  • Poynter’s Craig Silverman • Discussing the Gabrielle Giffords shooting one year ago today, as well as the way the media covered it on Twitter. Very notably that day, NPR tweeted that Giffords had died of a gunshot wound to the head, and a number of media outlets reported it, when she in fact hadn’t. Silverman, who runs Regret the Error for Poynter, kept a Storify from that day. It was a key moment for the real-time news movement, and a decision that once might’ve played behind closed doors is now in plain sight. It reflects the new world we live in as both news producers and news consumers — one where the errors play out in the open. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 May 2011 21:15

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World: Second try: The White House blows pretty major Bin Laden facts

  • yesterday Reports pushed forth by the White House suggested that Osama bin Laden had a weapon, and that he used his wife was a human shield, leading to her death.
  • today The White House changed both stories, noting that Bin Laden was unarmed (though others weren’t) and his wife was in fact not even killed, but just shot in the leg. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Apr 2011 16:38

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U.S.: FAA: Maybe we need to change air-traffic controllers’ schedules

  • cause Like sharks in a slow news period, air-traffic controllers have fallen asleep numerous times over the past few weeks — including one just last night in Miami.
  • reaction In an effort to help limit the workers’ on-the-job issues, the FAA plans to change their schedules to better adapt to the late-night shifts. source
  • » Some hard numbers: Our whole grumbling about air traffic controllers being the new sharks did get us curious about whether there were actually more errors among air traffic controllers. But USA Today beat us to the research back in February. Their findings? Incidents involving air traffic controllers are up 81 percent since 2007, from 1,040 to 1,887 in 2010. More serious incidents — which we’re assuming “sleeping on the job” includes — are up 26 percent over the same period, from 34 to 43. Not to say air traffic controllers shouldn’t be incredibly good at their jobs, but considering that we’re still talking about less than 2,000 incidents nationwide — big or small — over an entire year suggests at least some degree of overreaction.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Dec 2010 10:18

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Offbeat: NY Post criticizes NYC for “snow slowdow.” Without the “n.”

  • Dear New York Post: We know it may be hard to edit your graphics and stuff, but come on, it’s big type on your main headline. “Slowdow”? Really? And what’s with the one “t” in Paterson? Who cares if that’s his name? His parents and the rest of his family tree spelled it wrong! (thanks to the awesome hman on Tumblr for this one) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Dec 2010 00:50

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U.S.: Virginia has laughably awful history textbooks, just an FYI

  • mistake A Virginia-oriented history book called “Our Virginia: Past and Present” suggested that African-Americans fought for the South in the Civil War, causing a huge uproar over the claim, which has long been refuted.
  • f*#&-up A study of the history book by professional historians found that there were many obvious facts that were simply wrong in the book and others with the same publisher. The book, by the way, was not written by a historian. Oops. source
  • » A couple random examples: Peer reviewers found that “Our Virginia” and other books from the same textbook publisher said that the U.S. entered World War I a year earlier than it actually did, that Civil War soldiers commonly wore full suits of armor, and that New Orleans began on a U.S. harbor (instead of a Spanish one). It’s a book so good, it makes you feel dumber when reading it.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Aug 2010 20:13

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Tech: Did the New York Times totally fail on Google/Verizon article?

  • @NYTimes is wrong. We’ve not had any convos with VZN about paying for carriage of our traffic. We remain committed to an open internet.
  • A tweet from Google’s public policy feed • Denying the New York Times’ claims that they plan to play turncoat on net neutrality with Verizon. We must say, it’s not often the NYT gets a story totally wrong, and, well, this is kind of a biggie to get wrong. To top it all off, Verizon is also denying the claims. Embarrassing. (For what it’s worth, the Times article is still up with no correction in sight.) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

02 Aug 2009 13:28

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U.S.: Alessandra Stanley’s Cronkite obit won her a personal NYT copy editor

  • Remember that chick who dropped the ball at the NYT? The one that penned the Walter Cronkite obituary filled with *seven* factual errors, spelling mistakes and incorrect dates. Well, she’s still employed by the paper and now has a copy editor all to herself. Yay! Will they attach her to it with a leash, or what? source
Posted by Nathalie Heiberg • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Jul 2009 17:56

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U.S.: The NYT made way too many errors in their Cronkite obituary. Awkward.

  • 7 errors in the New York Times’ Cronkite obituary. Get it together guys. source
Posted by Nathalie Heiberg • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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