Dead Men Tell No Tales
A telling article on MSN.com shows how reliant on Wikipedia modern journalism has become, much to the truth’s detriment. Shane Fitzgerald, college student in Ireland, posted a fake quote on recently deceased Oscar-winning French composer Maurice Jarre’s Wikipedia page. Although the quote was completely unattributed, manifold news agencies picked it up and published it as fact. It was not until days later that anyone found out it was a hoax, and only until Fitzgerald contacted the news agencies to tell them.
The Guardian newspaper was the sole company to publicly apologize for publishing the completely false information. Other news agencies have either ignored the error, quietly corrected it, or simply blamed Fitzgerald outright. Most deliciously, Wikipedia editors had removed the quote within an hour because it could not be verified.
And news companies wonder why people are losing faith in their product.
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Tags: internet, media, msm, newspapers, wikipedia