Comments on: Credibility is all journalism has http://patthorntonfiles.com/blog/2008/03/05/credibility-is-all-journalism-has/ Random musings from a technologist Wed, 06 Apr 2011 15:43:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 By: DM http://patthorntonfiles.com/blog/2008/03/05/credibility-is-all-journalism-has/comment-page-1/#comment-4872 DM Sat, 27 Sep 2008 17:20:00 +0000 http://patthorntonfiles.com/blog/?p=200#comment-4872 Myself (researcher and professor in mathematics and computer science at a major university in France) and other professionals in other fields (lawyers, high-level civil servants and so on) have long deplored that journalists often don't get things right, and do not publish corrections. I've spotted errors that would not be tolerated from a highschool student (such as confusion between kWh and kW/h in a technology story). The late physics Nobel prize laureate Richard Feynman also expressed fairly critical thoughts at the way ignorant journalists garble what is beyond their grasp. So, yes, journalists should stop complaining about bloggers and begin cleaning up their own mess. Myself (researcher and professor in mathematics and computer science at a major university in France) and other professionals in other fields (lawyers, high-level civil servants and so on) have long deplored that journalists often don’t get things right, and do not publish corrections. I’ve spotted errors that would not be tolerated from a highschool student (such as confusion between kWh and kW/h in a technology story). The late physics Nobel prize laureate Richard Feynman also expressed fairly critical thoughts at the way ignorant journalists garble what is beyond their grasp.

So, yes, journalists should stop complaining about bloggers and begin cleaning up their own mess.

]]> By: Chris Amico http://patthorntonfiles.com/blog/2008/03/05/credibility-is-all-journalism-has/comment-page-1/#comment-2491 Chris Amico Wed, 05 Mar 2008 21:05:02 +0000 http://patthorntonfiles.com/blog/?p=200#comment-2491 The Sun does deserve some credit, I think, for being thorough in the correction. It's more than most papers would do, even in the case of a story so far out as this one. Having to pull back and restate so much ought to serve as a gut-check to editors to rethink how this story made it to publication without proper vetting. Being open about what went wrong, I think, should help the Sun maintain and rebuild some credibility it lost with this story. The Sun does deserve some credit, I think, for being thorough in the correction. It’s more than most papers would do, even in the case of a story so far out as this one. Having to pull back and restate so much ought to serve as a gut-check to editors to rethink how this story made it to publication without proper vetting. Being open about what went wrong, I think, should help the Sun maintain and rebuild some credibility it lost with this story.

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