Online report that CEO Steve Jobs suffered a heart attack was false. SEC said to be investigating. This false report caused a 10% drop in Apple stock within no time! And Apple only recovered to a 3% loss by day’s end. The kicker is that this site is a fully “user” written blog site.
This trend of the media using “user” rated and written sites is leading to a very SCARY place. When the media writes an article, they are required by law to give TRUE and RELIABLE sources for their information. However, when some unknown user gets online and writes a blog, they can make up any story they like and post it. If the media continues to cite such sources and/or allow them to post to their blogs, place quotes on their TV programming, or whatever post haste, they are running the GRAVE RISK of allowing biased, FALSE content.
As I watched CNN a few months ago at a restaurant, I saw user posts being quoted on one of their shows. One of the quotes was shared as if it were “fact” when it actually was not. This scared me a bit. It makes me nervous when we simply feed our viewers what they want versus the actual truth.
I hope that the media in general will learn a lesson from all of this and close down this kind of run-a-muck social journalism, or at least regulate it a bit more.
Again, as I say often, I really hope that we begin to ask ourselves “What is right?” versus simply “What is possible?” Just because something is possible, does not make it the “right” thing to do. Well, that’s a battle I don’t think I am going to fight today.
CNN however will have to…
This is further adds