Rose Law Group Reporter Gripe of the Week
As TIME magazine noted this week, CNN and Fox News blew one of the biggest stories of the year by misreading an opinion and wrongly reporting the Supreme Court had overturned Obamacare.
Pete Williams, whom your Gripe editor worked with for years in Wyoming, wasn’t first, but got it right in his NBC report the guts of the health care bill had been upheld.
This week in Boston, CNN’s John King, citing multiple sources, reported a suspect had been arrested. And Fox News did. And the AP did. And TIME, in its own story about journalistic malpractice, reported it had posted the AP story on time.com.
“And NBC… didn’t. Pete Williams went on a special report with Brian Williams and said his multiple sources said there had been no arrest. Live on air, he stuck to his guns even as Brian Williams read the numerous competitor reports contradicting him.
“It was a standoff. Pete Williams won,” TIME reported.
The moral of the story is this: Unless it has the gravitas of a Watergate revelation or the killing of Osama bin Laden, a “scoop” doesn’t mean a damn thing when it’s a scoop of mistruth.
Related: Boston photos create tough decisions for news media
