“Did you hear what some flight attendant in New York did?”
From offices to college campuses to airports, it seems everyone was talking this week about Steven Slater—the JetBlue flight attendant who had just about enough with one rude passenger.
After getting hit on the head with a piece of luggage and cursed at, he reportedly cursed back (over the intercom no less), grabbed some beer and made his escape by employing the emergency evacuation chute.
While everyone was talking about whether Slater was an idiot who just ruined his career or a hero for service employees everywhere, a young woman named Jenny quit her job, too. She emailed her co-workers several photographs showing her holding a white board with a series of messages ratting out her boss for spending nearly 20 hours a week playing Farmville.
Although funny and clever, the photos appeared a little too snazzy, the girl a little too cute. Alas, we learned on Wednesday that Jenny was an actress and the quitting was a hoax.
I applaud theCHIVE.com for pulling off the Jenny prank, which harmlessly entertained the masses, who linked to the photos of Jenny on their Facebook pages and Twitter feeds. However, I expect more from the major news organizations who fell for this hoax, reporting Jenny as a disgruntled employee in the Slater vein.
No one was suspicious of the timing, right after Slater quit in grand fashion? Where was the fact checking? Or, at least, where was the disclaimer that said, “This is something funny we came across today. It may be a hoax—we’re looking into it—but enjoy it.”
One morning show I was watching simply mentioned they were looking for Jenny to interview; you could almost see them salivate at the thought of getting the first live interview with her. (These are the same organizations who fell for the Balloon Boy hoax, although that was not all in good fun.)
The Jenny prank first appeared on theCHIVE.com, a photo entertainment website, that admits on its “about” page that the site is responsible for the hoax about a teenager who lost her virginity on a beach and accidentally texted her dad about it.
That story was picked up as a real story by news organizations and late-night comics, including The Today Show and Jay Leno. And according to the Media Memo blog at All Things Digital, the creators of theCHIVE.com are the same guys behind a 2007 spoof that claimed Donald Trump left a $10,000 tip on a restaurant bill.
So, what happened to fact checking? Have we become so quick to get the story out before our competitors that even the most basic fact checking has disappeared?
I’m not naïve enough to think this is a new problem, and I realize that the Jenny prank is not going to destroy the world.
However, it points to the bigger picture: Why is it considered acceptable to “borrow” news items from other websites and news shows and report them as your own? Why is it acceptable to ignore even the most basic fact checking—like looking for the original story source?
How much fact checking do you do for articles, blogs or the soundbites people provide you? Is fact checking a part of your regular review process or do you only do it when something so egregious jumps out at you?
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Nice article but this sort of hoax has been going on for a very long time. It only recently went high tech. Here’s one that was done long before you were born
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_(radio)
P.S. A news organization top priority is the bottom line. If you want fact checking with your news, try reading the newspaper.
I take your point about news organizations being solely about the bottom line, but that’s not acceptable to me. They can’t show a well-written and reported, heavily fact-checked investigative piece one minute and then show a “fun” story like the “Jenny quits” story the next without adhering to the same journalistic principles for both. (Well, they can and they do, but it’s not acceptable to me.) Too many people outside the biz get their news from these news shows and don’t realize that the same journalistic standards are not being adhered to for each story. Am I just an idealist?
I appreciate your comment!
Well Miss Powers, I sure hope you never ever have to learn about a news organization out calling itself FOX NEWS. Your heart will explode if you ever did.
Actually, news organizations can show a ‘well-written and reported, heavily fact-checked investigative piece’ when they can and they do it each night for 4-5 minutes on programs like The Nightly News, World News and the CBS Evening News for something that really matter. In fact programs like 20/20, Prime Time Live and Dateline does what you’re looking for as well in a much longer format. But stories that you’re holding News organizations accountable for like the ‘Jenny quit her job’ only was mentioned as a side note. The same thing happened with ‘Balloon Boy’ if I remember correctly. They not world shattering news so a little slap on the wrist is fine by me. I’m not sure why you want to see them crucified for something that got us fooled.
I guess it’s all part of the Retweet first, read second (if at all) culture. There’s certainly an obsession with being first and a premium put on speed. I really enjoyed this post.
Sure do miss the good ol’ days of actual reporting, taking time to get things right, and working hard for every single fact. Let’s not be naive to the fact that newsrooms budgets being slashed plays in to this, so let us please not blame the writers/reporters and instead look to those controlling the purse strings.
Add Mike Wise to the list…