The rush to be the first...

The goal of so many news outlets isn’t to be the most accurate or the most professional; their goal is to be the “leaders” for late-breaking news. To claim that their outlet was the first to report a story, the first to break a huge developing account. But have news agencies today become too greedy with their need to be the first and thrown away their need to be accurate and professional? And many even more importantly, how do editors balance the need for speedy news with the need to be right?

Most recently I saw this need to be the leading reporter on a public story when British-born actress Natasha Richardson fell and suffered brain injuries Monday while skiing in Quebec, Canada. When the story broke Monday night, only the few, basic details of the accident were being published by many news outlets. But when Tuesday afternoon rolled around, there seemed to be fifteen differing reports on how the accident occurred and what the condition of the actress was. Some of the more reliable news outlets, such as CNN.com and People Magazine continued to just report the known facts; that the actress was injured in a skiing accident in Canada and was taken to a local hospital for brain injuries. However, news agencies such as TMZ and the New York Post continually updated their websites with reports specifying the injuries, without any specific and reliable information. It seemed like they were making assumptions about the condition for the actress based upon nothing but their own imagination; assumptions that were not only false, but also extremely hurtful to Richardson’s family.

A little after 3:00 on Tuesday, both Time Out New York and Perezhilton.com flashed eye-grabbing headlines that stated that the actress had passed away. No more than 60minutes later, both sites had retracted their statements. Although they were both first to report the news- it doesn’t matter if the news isn’t true. It’s not only that they reported something that wasn’t right; reporting of someone’s death isn’t something that should be thrown around. This story proves that it is best to be accurate, take your time and tripe-check your sources and the stories they are reporting before stating them as fact to the world.