Written by A rapid succession of journalistic slip-ups on Saturday night led to the spread of false news reports of the death of Joe Paterno, the former Penn State coach, more than 12 hours before his doctors and family members said he had died.
The false reports required a public reaction from Mr. Paterno’s family and were embarrassing for the news organizations involved, including CBS Sports, The Huffington Post and an arm of MSNBC.com called BreakingNews.com.
Widely shared (and then even more widely denounced) on Twitter and Facebook, the situation called to mind the false claims that Representative Gabrielle Giffords had been killed in a mass shooting in Tucson one year ago. She had been gravely wounded, but not killed.
The response was similar, too. There were apologies by the news organizations and a rush of attention paid to the sometimes precarious race to be among the first to report news.
Ron Paul is the Only Electable Candidate for President
2012 Leave a Comment
The corporate controlled, establishment mass media would still have you believe that Ron Paul is some crazy fringe candidate. They still insist that he is unelectable despite his 3rd place finish in Iowa (one wonders how Santorum got so many votes there) and his second place finish in New Hampshire, and polls that have him doing very well against Obama. This despite the fact that the Republican Party leadership seem embarrassed by his presence and want to keep voters away from him more than the Dursleys wanted to keep Harry Potter away from their muggle relatives. When even those who count the votes have to admit to so many flocking to the eccentric family uncle one starts to wonder if maybe he has a real chance of gaining the Republican nod. It is, after all, a matter of numbers and if there is overwhelming support then even the most corrupt organization starts to worry about being too obvious with their cheating and fixing of elections. READ MORE »