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Times like these prove print still king
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Disclaimer:
Elaine Kolodziej is responsible for this content, which is not edited by the Wilson County News or wilsoncountynews.com. |
August 26, 2012 | 688 views | 1 comment
Saturday’s headlines from NBC: “Neil Young, first man to walk on the moon, dies at 82.”
Of course, Neil Young is not an astronaut, nor is he 82. Cer-tainly, he is not dead!
And, while we are at it, let’s look at another on-the-air head-line: “BREAKING: RIP Lance Armstrong, dead at 82. Stay tuned to 96.6 The Fix for all the latest news!”
OK. So it was not Neil Young, nor was it Lance Armstrong, who is only 40 years old, and neither is he an astronaut. It’s times like these when you long for print, but then you have to wait and who wants to wait?
The person whose death was being announced, of course, was Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, who died Aug. 25 at age 82.
Here’s another. Just a few days ago, I heard this on the radio: “Britain’s Iron Lady has died.”
The announcer interrupted a broadcast with “breaking news.” A couple of minutes later, thank-fully while I was still listening, another breaking news item re-ported a correction and sincere apology. It seems that a “fake Twitter account tried, and briefly succeeded in, spreading the word that former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had died.”
Apparently there have been rumors before about Thatcher’s death, but with the fake account putting the news out and then a radio announcer putting it on the air, it’s hard to stop.
If someone listening to the radio had immediately tweeted the message and it was retweeted, it could have been around the globe in seconds -- and it probably was.
That’s why it is so exceedingly easy these days to spread rumors, proving, once again, that it’s best to rely on print. None of these errors would have appeared in print because that medium allows for time for checking and double-checking facts. That’s not to say, of course, that errors never hap-pen in print, but it’s much less likely.
The Internet is great for getting the “latest,” and then following with full details in print. That makes print king. We just need to learn to be a little patient.
Oh, and Jackie Chan is still not dead. |
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Elaine K.
Floresville
August 26, 2012 2:40pm
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