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Brief 8: Misinformation and Fact-Checking

Overburdened with Embarrassment: The Importance of Fact-Checking.

No doubt that journalism and reporting is one of the most important aspects of our lives. It's how we get our news from across the globe. How we are informed is the basis for forming our own opinions on political and social issues. What if we were informed of wrong information? It happens all of the time! In part thanks to the growing popularity and use of social media as a news platform, misinformed news is only becoming more constant.

One of the most popular brands of misinformation is election and political misinformation. There are multiple sides to this issue that reverberates the base issue of being misinformed, such as believing everything you read on the internet and rumors spreading rapidly. Some people still believe that Barack Obama wasn't born in the United States. This rumor began circulating as an email chain and internet meme that gained ground onto the political spectrum, appearing on major cable news shows.

In all honesty, most breaking news stories start on the suspicion of a story, and in order to be the first network to get the story out, there has to be some kind of guessing or misinformation going on. For example, in November of 2018, a shooting occurred at an Alabama shopping mall in which news stations reported that an officer had killed a gunmen. After a few hours, developments led to the revelation that the officer had actually shot another man, someone who may or may not have been involved with the gunmen. This is less of a failure on the news stations part as they simply report what they're given (which is a part of the issue), but misinformation on the police departments side.

Last January, Rotten Tomatoes accidentally made a tweet referring to John Carpenter as if he had passed away. Carpenter actually responded to Rotten Tomatoes, calling them out for the inaccuracy. In an interview after the incident, Carpenter said, "Why did you not check and see if I was alive? Did you get me confused with Wes Craven or someone like that?"

Even fact-checking isn't fact checked correctly, or even censored. CBS deleted a 'fact check' of President Trump's oval office speech that proved him correct. No word was given as to why the segment was deleted from CBS's site.

Thank goodness we're past April 1st, the most dangerous of misinformation days.

 

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