The rush to publish

The profession of journalism has changed rather dramatically over the past 30 years and the biggest disruptor to the fourth estate has been the internet. Before we all jumped on board the information superhighway there were two ways people consumed the news, the morning paper or the nightly bulletin. These two avenues enabled journalists to take their time, craft a story, conduct interviews and undertake proper fact checking but with the introduction of the 24-hour news cycle and social media we have seen a dramatic increase in the publication of incorrect information.

When a news outlet is the first to publish an important story the credit and recognition for breaking the story cannot be underestimated, particularly for commercial outlets. If the outlet builds a reputation for always having the scoop people will consume their content as a priority and this is a major selling point to advertisers.

Here at MyMedia we’ve seen all manner of retractions, from tiny paragraphs tucked under the crossword to full blown front page apologies. The most recent and high profile was from 7NEWS when they incorrectly published a photo of Nyamal man Terrence “Terry” Flowers. The 27-year old’s image was taken from Facebook and used in television broadcasts, an online article, a tweet and a Facebook post by the Seven Network. One headline read: ‘PICTURED: The man accused of abducting Cleo Smith named as Terrance Kelly, 36’.

Terry Flowers learned his image was being incorrectly used whilst in hospital with his baby, he went to the local police station for assistance, whilst there Mr Flowers became so distressed he ended up needing medical treatment. His mother and sister fielded endless phone calls and Mr Flowers was subject to online abuse from an international cohort of keyboard warriors. 7NEWS was informed of the mistake and published an online apology as well as an on-air apology that evening.

Channel 7’s apology

This all happened the day Cleo Smith was found; the MyMedia office was buzzing with excitement that day but also with a sense of duty. We had clients invested in this story, they needed minute by minute updates, in fact all West Australians if not all Australians wanted minute by minute updates. If we as media monitors were feeling the pressure imagine how the journalists felt? On what was arguably the biggest news day for 2021 the demands for an exclusive would have been overwhelming, any skerrick of new information was being processed at a rate of knots.

Consider a public hungry for information from the 24-hour news cycle coupled with commercial pressures from advertisers who have paid good money for space surrounding the top stories of the day. The furore felt by journos and editors that day would have been immense and unfortunately Terry Flowers was a man with a similar name to the accused caught up in the crossfires of a rush to publish.

There are many reasons false stories are being published, sometimes it’s the news rooms desire to break a story, sometimes the journalist covering the story can get carried away by a social media controversy and lose their better judgement. When a story needs to be retracted for either of these reasons it can not only be embarrassing but costly. A subsequent defamation case brought against 7NEWS by Terry Flowers ruled in his favour and an undisclosed amount was paid to the gentleman by Seven.

The rush to publish stories has become a symptom of our 24-hour news cycle and there has certainly been an increase in retractions and withdrawals. However you should not bemoan the death of the fourth estate, instead, value the news outlets that correct themselves. These are the outlets who are holding themselves to the same standards of accountability as the people and institutions they report on.