40below: First off, thanks for coming into the open to help us learn a bit more about the craft. I know
you work hard at getting it right, and try to get your colleagues to do it right, too, but as with cops/soldiers/politicians, the group often suffers because of the mistakes of the few.
40below said:
Come on, Tony, what are we supposed to do with an editor screaming at us through a cell phone? Tell him there appears to have been a plane crash but we're not comfortable writing anything about it until the BOI report is issued in 18 months?
Good point - I stand corrected for not providing more context.
The DS solution: "I've seen a, witnesses tell me b, spokespersons say c, other media outlets (named) say d, and we don't know e yet." That said, there's also pressure on the reporter from the bosses to get
something out. This part is a structural issue, not an individual reporter issue (although, being human, some reporters and editors take shortcuts). I've also worked in places where we were told "it's OK if the others get it first, but we will get it right."
In your example:
40below said:
If you read what you quoted above and made such fun of, it was the RCMP who issued the statement that you take such issue with about the pilot apparently ejecting and reportedly not suffering lifethreatening injuries. Feel free to put it your dumb quote file, but do correctly attribute it to a federal civil servant, not a reporter who wrote down the words of the guy the federal government chose to issue an official statement about what occurred.
The DS solution would be "The RCMP says...."
40below said:
And I'm not trying to pile on you Tony, but I do note, when you saw this story, you didn't say to yourself, "I'm
not going to post this to army.ca, I'm going to wait a few weeks until all the facts are corrected and official statements are released." >
Touché, fair enough and I don't feel piled on. Two critical differences, though:
1) I'm not and don't claim to be a journalist - just an idle
former journalist who bakes bread on weekends and
armchair quarterbacks critiques MSM and professional communicators from time to time ;D
2) I tend to see forums like this as a one-stop "mosaic" where tiles from different media outlets get pulled together until something approximating a picture emerges. Then, more tiles from people who know the biz get plugged in to make a more nuanced mosaic. I don't have the editor yelling down the phone at me (anymore, anyway).
Then again, maybe I'm
bitter & twisted sensitive because of stories other outlets would steal from me without crediting/attribution, or being misquoted or taken out of context by some MSM
