After an already tough few months for Pennsylvania State University, the community received some more bad news Sunday. Former head coach of Penn State's football team Joe Paterno passed away at the age of 85.
But in a terrible display of reporting gone wrong, news of Paterno's death broke prematurely due to a misinformed tweet by a blogger, which was picked up by major online news sources like the Huffington Post and CBSSports.com.
The blogger who posted the false tweet was managing editor of Onwardstate.com, Devon Edwards. Onwardstate.com is an unofficial blog for Penn State, described by Editor-at-Large Davis Shaver as "a student-run community news website."
According to Shaver, two of the blog's writers received news of an email, supposedly sent by "a high-ranking athletic official" to athletes at Penn State, claiming Paterno had passed. When Edwards received news of this email from one writer and confirmation from another, he tweeted the news.
CBSSports.com also reported the news after the tweet was posted. Minutes later, Joe Paterno's son Scott refuted the information, saying his father was still "alive but in serious condition."
Over the last few years, blogs have become a tour de force in terms of their influence on the media. The more credible blogs are often cited as legitimate sources in news reports. While some blogs simply provide commentary on the news of the day, others create original content by doing their own reporting and news-gathering.
This trend in the melding of traditional and online media, while providing a new interactive environment between the media and the audience, can also have some serious consequences for the integrity of the news.
First, the blog should and has taken responsibility for their false reports on the situation. Edwards, the managing editor, immediately resigned after learning he had posted the incorrect information. Unfortunately, the blog was on the bad end of a horrible hoax, but the bloggers still showed a great deal of accountability.
What's even more troubling about this issue is the complete lack of journalistic integrity of the mainstream websites who jumped on the story. The reporters at CBSSports.com should have realized this was a delicate issue and triple-checked the tweet before they published the story. As a professional news outlet that reaches millions of people, one would have thought their standards for news-gathering were top-notch. This oversight was just pure laziness.
While blogs have a lot to offer the media and their audiences, they are still not held to the same standards that professional news organizations have to uphold. Well, at least we thought they do.
