Errors

If you were wondering why we need ombudsmen (or even what the heck ombudsmen are), Jeffrey Dvorkin, formerly of NPR has the answer for you in an October 13 post at the Common Ground News Service.

In his essay, Dvorkin discusses the strengths of the position (also called a readers’ representative or public editor) in a changing news environment, and advocates continued hiring of ombudsmen, especially for coverage of the Middle East. Dvorkin, Executive...Go to full story

We’ve written before about the potential harm done when the media report shallowly on medical issues, quote “experts” who aren’t, or give false balance and fluff treatment to sources whose health arguments are unfounded or even dangerous. Now a particularly scary example of this bad journalism has been pointed out in the British magazine The Spectator, which recently scheduled and then cancelled a debate on a film that mistakenly and dangerously questions...Go to full story

On October 27, a story posted at the Huffington Post announced the news “Scalia on Brown v. Board of Education: I Would Have Dissented.”

The post described how in a University of Arizona talk, Supreme Court Justice Scalia had apparently said that if he had been on the high court in 1954, he would have disagreed with the historic decision ending school segregation. It turns out, Scalia didn’t say that at all (more on this later).  Megan...Go to full story

Apparently, October is National Hoax Month -- or so it would seem, given the proliferation of fraudulent stories that appeared over the past couple weeks. It all began with a boy not in a balloon... By now, you've almost certainly heard of Falcon Heene, the 6-year-old boy from Fort Collins, Colorado who, for a brief period of time, was thought to be trapped inside his father's homemade weather balloon. News crews flocked to capture the scene and helicopters from the Colorado...Go to full story

Usually young journalists learn their ethical lessons from the paragons of good behavior--role models whose writing and conduct embody the highest regard for responsible reporting. But in the spirit of the opposite kind of lesson--learning from someone else’s mistakes--a group of students will be taking some pointers from one of the most famously unethical journalists of the 21st century next month--disgraced former New York Times reporter Jayson Blair. Blair is scheduled...Go to full story

MediaMatters.org, a progressive website dedicated to correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media, brought up two instances of bad poll reporting in the press last week.

In one, they criticize the conservative press for calling a recent poll finding majority support for a public health care option “fraudulent," and "rigged."  In another, they specifically call out the program Fox & Friends for using an outdated poll...Go to full story

Reuters (and subsequently The New York Times and Washington Post) fell for a hoax press release issued by the farcical activists the Yes Men on Monday, October 19.  Greg Sargent writes in his blog that Reuters published the story, reporting that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce had reversed its opposition to climate change legislation, based on a hoax press release.  The Reuters story was then picked up by the New York Times and the Washington Post, among other...Go to full story

60 Minutes recently rebroadcast a 2007 story titled “The Age of Megafires,” which discusses the link between forest management policies, climate changes in the western United States, and a recent increase in the frequency of large western forest fires. Dealing with the subtle, and often thorny issue of climate change, the broadcast unfortunately makes a few factual missteps in its coverage. This kind of accuracy problem can often serve as a toehold for critics to...Go to full story

Quick, say fact-check five times fast.

In a funny sort of parody sandwich, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart found itself fact-checking CNN this week after CNN broadcast a segment highlighting Politifact.com’s fact-check of the late night comedy show Saturday Night Live.

It all started when Saturday Night Live broadcast a segment poking fun at President Obama's progress (or lack thereof) on a number of fronts.  Politifact.com...Go to full story

The Quackometer, a blog commenting on pseudoscience, reported this week on such a blatantly bad story in the London-based Daily Mail, that it almost doesn’t seem real:  “Can this man cure cancer with his bare hands?” the paper asks of “psychic healer” Adrian Pengelly in its headline. The answer should be a decided “No he cannot,” according to scientific evidence.  Anecdotes from Pengelly's clients who feel they have been...Go to full story