Ledger's death a window into speed reporting

If you watched the story of Heath Ledger’s death explode chaotically across the Internet, with facts, errors, inconsistencies and confusions flying every which way, you may have concluded that in the new digital media’s race to break stories in minutes, accuracy has been left in the dust.

Chief among the media’s switchbacks was the early non-fact that Ledger’s death had taken place at the New York apartment of Mary-Kate Olsen. Celebrity news site TMZ.com and even the New York Times' City Room blog reported this piece of misinformation before they unreported it. 

Importantly, however, neither the New York Times nor TMZ got it wrong.  It was the NYPD spokesman who had the story mixed up — the media were simply parroting incorrect information.

When the spokesman later corrected himself, the sites rushed to update the story, but readers were critical of the changes.

“TMZ is in such a rush to break the news,” one commenter wrote, echoing dozens of others, “that they are usually wrong first.”

But here’s the problem: Stories have never arrived to the world fully formed or vetted. Journalists have generally had hours — not minutes or seconds — to craft a story from the blast wave of facts and factoids that comes in the wake of a bombshell. 

What people are seeing now is an old-fashioned process — reporting — as it unfolds in real time. If the public wants its information as raw and immediate as possible, it'll have to get used to a few missteps along the way, and maybe even approach breaking stories with a bit of skepticism, like a good reporter would.

Comments

[daniel]

agreed, really bad "speed" reporting, and "established" media sources who source from TMZ should be embarresed.....but the LA Times homepage "slow" reporting displays what's wrong with the online aspect of the LA TIMES...the article is uniquely un-informative, posted over two hours ago and not really filled with any reportage, other than quotes from young acting studens not connected to Ledger and a oddly misplaced quote from the IMDB ( a website's often filled with unsource, or lazily sourced informatin) from Ledger seven years ago, talking about his thoughts at the time regarding the geograpy and ambiance of Los Angeles.....

Quotes from Ledger recently, easily obtained from legit news /profiles/etc - even from a long feature from the LA TIMES itself about Ledger approx two about his life at the time with Michelle Williams, would seem much more appropiate.....

[chris]

What constitutes "speed" is the desire to report any lurid detail as quickly as possible. Does it matter that he was "naked"? Does that help the story? It was a sad thing, made sadder by the fact that the vultures are circling. He died. When there is real information, publish it. Otherwise, don't. It's not "reporting" if you haven't checked and verified your facts. It's gossip.

[thegreatnothing]

What about the other 6700 people who die every day in the US alone. What is the fasination with .00000001% of this Countries population?

The media feeds to the "dumb downed" masses. The world today has it's perspectives totally out of wack.

Absolutely no hope left. Oh well....

[person of interest]

They say that they're giving us what we demand. News now....as it happens !!!
I never demanded misinformation. Did you ? It's not news to me until I hear it. Just
get it right. Whenever .