The Ethical Optimist

One of the most frustrating aspects related to the downsizing of media is the lack of original source reporting.  Those of us in the PR field are dealing with this on a daily basis.  With fewer local and beat reporters, media outlets rely on wire services and other syndicated entities for their news. Unfortunately, if the original source gets it wrong, it filters down and the erroneous information has a much longer shelf life that’s difficult to deal with.

We had an incident along these lines today.  A major ratings agency mistakenly reported on one of our clients yesterday. The client’s local news radio station picked up the report and ran with it.  A number of employees in the area heard the broadcast and were understandably upset.  Not once did the local business reporter think to call the company for a statement even though they were based locally. No fact checking…nothing.

While PR people are routinely called on the carpet for not checking our facts or for misleading information, yet I find it’s a bigger problem with media these days.

Here’s the kicker, when we called the local reporter and told him he got it wrong, he said he picked it up from the wire…as though that made it legit.  Thank goodness my folks are well trained.  The account rep quickly pointed out that despite the source of the story, he ran it and called it his own, which made him the responsible party.  As my guy said, “I don’t care where you got it, your call letters were on it, and you have an obligation to your audience to report it factually.”  Good boy!

The wind up? The business reporter interviewed a company spokesman and ran a more detailed story that got the facts straight.