By Mike Cavender, RTDNA Executive Director

The premature and erroneous initial reports this past weekend about the death of former Penn State legendary coach, Joe Paterno, once again raise troubling issues about the “need to be first” mentality, despite the fact that information is unconfirmed and unsourced.

These problems are compounded in our 24/7, multi-platform news and social media world—but the lessons to be learned are really no different than in the days when Americans had little more than a few radio and TV stations and a local newspaper in their markets.

But what has changed—and, unfortunately, increased the “we need to be first” pressure is that traditional media is competing not only with itself, but with more and more web-based news organizations as well as with Tweets, Facebook posts and the like. Remember, with the Paterno story, it was a tweet by the editor of a student-run news organization that covers Penn State that started this chain of events.

The codes of ethics authored by major journalism organizations like RTDNA all cite the need for accuracy and public trust to be paramount among the driving forces behind what we do and how we do it.  In fact, our own Social Media Guidelines state;   “Social media comments and postings should meet the same standards of fairness, accuracy and attribution that you apply to your on-air or digital platform.”   However, despite the fact that the social media posting in this case was unconfirmed—other media organizations (at least one of them a network) jumped on it.  Like a snowball rolling downhill, the story picked up steam and strength, despite the fact that it was inaccurate at that point.

To be sure, other news organizations—both national and local—stood back and took a breath, determining that there wasn’t sufficient information or confirmation to justify going with the story yet.  Those that did, including the AP and even some TV stations near Penn State, are to be commended for their restraint.

The managing editor who originated the tweet which started all this resigned hours after it was first released. According to an AP story, Devon Edwards hinted that pressure to be first may have played a role in his actions.  

“In this day and age, getting it first often conflicts with getting it right, but our intention was never to fall into that chasm,”  Edwards is reported as saying in his resignation letter.  “All I can do now is promise that in the future, we will exercise caution, restraint and humility.” 

However, as was the case a year ago with early media reports that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords had died from her gunshot wounds, once again we damage our reputation and our profession.   Every time this happens, we lose a little more of our credibility.  But our audiences lose more.  That’s because the not-so-subtle message we send is that the competitive pressure to be “first” trumps the need to be accurate.  

And that’s just not a message we should ever send.  

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Breaking News

So what are we going to do about it? It's time to stop talking about this. Everyone gives lip service to this issue and the embarrassing moments continue to tarnish our news organizations.

I'm here in State College and know the students at Onward State. They realize they went over the line. I'm going to be an adviser for them to help them learn from this mistake.

But CBS? Why did they blindly circulate the report without checking?

I just wrote a blog about this same topic, let me know your thoughts

Tom Loebig, Director of Digital Media Content and Operations, AccuWeather

http://t.co/K9IEcqUX

When did it become okay?

Something to consider is..When did it become okay to air any news story or article without verifying the facts? Whether it be a large network or small market tv/radio; there is a shared responsibility to get the facts right. Do we really believe that extra 3 minutes that it takes to make a phone call to verify what our sources are telling us is going to stop the world from turning? Also,there is a growing concern that many in the news business share. Syndication and automation is eating away at the very soul of what real news reporting is; providing information that is accurate and relative to the area that you serve.
When you turn off the lights and leave the building,you leave yourself open to the whims of another person or persons bad judgement. It's time for self policing by those who both write and earn the paycheck, because boys when that person that you wrongly reported on says enough is enough, it's going to cost and not just your reputation.

Rush Hour

Once a major professional news organization breaks a story, it's off to the races. Everyone cites everyone online - that's just the way news evolves these days. But you should never neglect properly attributing information.

Marc Sternfield
Executive Producer of Digital Media, FOX31 Denver & KWGN

Not much response

Too bad more news managers aren't sharing their thoughts to this thread. No organization should think it's bullet-proof from making a similar mistake, like the JoePa issue.