This is why we need editors

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Permalink Reply by Richard Michem on September 9, 2008 at 7:24pm

Do you think, that Google, can have an Editor, to read all news sources? I wonder if you could not blame the paper, for letting the old story get online in the first place. I have a strange feeling, there is going to be some kind of lawsuit, that will answer all these questions.

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Permalink Reply by Keith Gregory on September 10, 2008 at 9:15am

I think its a question of CMS & how not all content should be kept.

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Permalink Reply by Sean Fulton on September 10, 2008 at 9:33am

The question isn't whether Google should have editors or how the content got picked up in the first place. The question is how an investment advisory service and Bloomberg can report something without ever bothering to pick up a phone and call to verify the information.

There is a certain assumption with both of these services that they provide some level of verification for the information they provide, and yet as this article points out, neither of these providers of information bothered to check their facts.

You can't blame Google for finding the information, or the Tribune for archiving it. The job of a reporter and editor is to take raw data and turn it into information. In this case, that didn't happen.

sean

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Permalink Reply by David Willson on September 12, 2008 at 1:10pm

For those of us who have been in journalism for any length of time it's simply unbelievable that Bloomberg would make this kind of error. However, many small-cap and micro-cap investment Web sites are operated simply as lead generators and post content directly from search feeds.

You are absolutely correct Sean, that it's a lapse of journalistic ethics to publish without verification or attribution, but the situation described here is probably more a lack of work ethic, or the simple reality that so much data passes through Web resources today that it is overwhelming to us mere humans who must somehow shepherd it.

However, I've also recently been thinking about how in this day and age of participatory culture and social media, the vast majority of content will someday be user generated. And distribution of that content will be decentralized. Which brings us back to the idea of ethics, both cultural and individual. In order for all of us to have even a modicum of faith in the information we receive, we will ultimately all have to be stewards of the truth and diligent editors.

I actually blogged about this yesterday, and then this discussion caught my eye.

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