After reading the article below, I really wonder why reporters continue to do this when they know what the consequences are. Why would they do the exact same thing after they have seen "colleagues" get fired??
http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/172798/second-reporter-loses-job-over-nbc-george-zimmerman-911-call-edit/
I think the reporter here was driven by a desire to be first. In the era of the 24-hour news cycle, journalists are finding themselves choosing speed and being first over accuracy and the truth. The fact that the reporter simply reused the same edited video is proof of this. I think until more journalists are punished by being fired will this epidemic slowly start to fade. There are simply not good enough consequences for inaccurate stories.
ReplyDeleteI always wonder about these things too, how can you really be so stupid? I think many people somehow think they can get away with it, and do it because it makes the story just a little bit more interesting. It is a shame because what we want to do as reporters is share the truth and not a "good" story. With things like this you can only hope that people will not generalize all journalists to do the same: simply look for fame and sensationalize stories. Jordan says that the consequences aren't good enough, but I can't imagine Luciano is going to be able to get another job at a news outlet, that's a pretty serious consequence to me.
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