By Jason Snyder
The most basic tenet I learned as an undergraduate studying journalism was to get the facts, right down to spelling names correctly, as in S-h-e-r-r-o-d.
In the last several days as we’ve watched the Shirley Sherrod case unfold, we’ve seen the mainstream media, in a rush not to be the last reporting the story, miss some of the facts. In making a speech to the NAACP, Sherrod, a USDA employee, recounted a time in her past that seemed to implicate her as racist. But as the speech went on to reveal, her complete story was one of self-revelation when she realized that the important thing was to help the poor. Some media outlets based their story only on an edited video they saw.
Though Andrew Breitbart, who originally posted the video of Sherrod’s speech, is a well-known conservative blogger, should his word have been taken as Gospel? No. Like some news organizations did, the full context of the speech should have first been reviewed before running with the story.
We look to the media for credibility, and most of the time we get it. But in this day of citizen journalism and an exploding online world with split-second deadlines, fact checking and credibility are more important than ever. As we’ve just seen, video can be edited to support a particular position, and anybody with a computer and WordPress can write a blog.
In helping our clients tell their stories, we often work with the mainstream media. We take that strategy because of the credibility that comes along with having an independent third-party (a journalist) validate our client’s story as news. We also look to new media — bloggers, LinkedIn and Facebook, to name a few — to help tell stories as well. This new world of new media offers many great opportunities, as long as they’re leveraged strategically and appropriately. A lesson in the Sherrod case is that the new media is not always synonymous with the mainstream media.
It’s our responsibility as PR professionals to help journalists get all the facts, whether in a run-away online crisis similar to the Sherrod case or in proactively helping our clients tell their great, untold stories. Part of that responsibility includes monitoring both the traditional and online media to ensure that the full context is being provided and the facts are straight.
In the spirit of living what I preach, I’d appreciate a fact-check here. If you see anything questionable or any context missing from this blog post, please let me know. Just as important, what do you think? Do you disagree or have more to add?
Jason Snyder is vice president of WordWrite Communications.
