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Cleveland.com duped by hoax website

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by MisterCreosote, Apr 11, 2016.

  1. MisterCreosote

    MisterCreosote Well-Known Member

    The "story" claimed the NBA was threatening to move the All-Star Game out of North Carolina in protest of the same law Bruce Springsteen was protesting. Of course, the story was a hoax:

    We made a big mistake over the weekend, and we should not have

    The problem is, I guess the copy desk included the false anecdote in an AP story and didn't attribute it to the site they took it from, making it look like AP was reporting the bad info.

    The site pretty closely mimicked abcnews.com. Maybe it's hindsight, but this looks pretty obviously fake to me:

    [​IMG]
     
  2. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

    When your top priorities are breaking the union and throwing experienced reporters and copy editors out of work, this is what happens.
     
    wicked, Tweener, dixiehack and 3 others like this.
  3. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    Sigh. I'm at least good enough to work for Cleveland.com, dammit.
     
    gravehunter, Bud_Bundy, Padre and 7 others like this.
  4. typefitter

    typefitter Well-Known Member

    How far we done fell.
     
    TGO157, Tweener and Ace like this.
  5. Drip

    Drip Active Member

    Not far enough.
     
  6. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    I figure most of the "social media" people working at news orgs these days don't even bother reading beyond the tweet.
     
  7. mediaguy

    mediaguy Well-Known Member

    As apologies go, it's better than most. Admit you were wrong, explain it and apologize.
     
    Ace likes this.
  8. Tweener

    Tweener Well-Known Member

    "I want to assure you that we are using this episode to re-educate our staff about some journalism basics." That's embarrassing. The basics should be acquired in college, not in the newsroom of a major daily metro.
     
    wicked likes this.
  9. Riptide

    Riptide Well-Known Member

    What else can he say, really?

    Chris Quinn is a stand-up guy, and it seems he met it head-on and said what he needed to say.
     
  10. Tweener

    Tweener Well-Known Member

    I've met Chris. He is a stand up guy. But he's also the one hiring people who evidently need to be taught the basics of journalism, so I can imagine that is embarrassing for him.
     
    Last edited: Apr 13, 2016
  11. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    In the web posting world, speed is king. Don't know how many times our social media folks had posted or were begging to post stuff straight off the web that was news from somebody's beat without even wanting to take the time to run it past the beat writer.

    They look at many traditional journalists as impossibly slow. (Wait! You want so-and-so to call the NBA and check? It's already being reported by ABC! We'll post a story and the NBA writer can update it.)

    But the problem is they have very few filters on what's legit, what's from sketchy sources, what's a hoax. All they care about is clicks and if an item is generating traffic.
     
    Last edited: Apr 12, 2016
  12. SFIND

    SFIND Well-Known Member

    Whoever looked at that site and thought it was real needs an eye examination quick. The ABC logo looks like it's from the 50's.
     
    Liut likes this.
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