Worst journalism 2014: cringeworthy news blunders

wfgodot · Dec 23, 2014

The worst journalism of 2014: Columbia Journalism Review's cringeworthy news blunders

News blunders tend to have short lifespans. They’re outed by watchful eyes, social media erupts, and the gears of outrage begin to turn. But after a brief flourish of snarky finger-wagging, they typically disappear, lost amid the ever-expanding sea of digital content.

This year has been one of many triumphs for journalists, who’ve told the stories of political struggle at home and violent struggle abroad, a public health crisis and airline tragedies that drew the eyes of the world, and self-examinations of American racial, domestic, and sexual norms. There have also been plenty of screw-ups, and CJR has kept track of them so you don’t have to.
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Here’s one last salute to the year’s worst of the worst before their final burial at digital sea.
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the list and stories at the link above

And also....

'Rolling Stone' Asks Columbia J-School To Investigate Flawed Rape Story (NPR)

Cappuccino · Dec 23, 2014

I can think of a story that should be on that list and isn't - the 800 babies in a septic tank story that turned out to be a mare's nest.

shadowraiths · Apr 25, 2015

A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: Last November, we published a story, 'A Rape on Campus' [RS 1223], that centered around a University of Virginia student's horrifying account of her alleged gang rape at a campus fraternity house. Within days, commentators started to question the veracity of our narrative. Then, when The Washington Post uncovered details suggesting that the assault could not have taken place the way we described it, the truth of the story became a subject of national controversy.

As we asked ourselves how we could have gotten the story wrong, we decided the only responsible and credible thing to do was to ask someone from outside the magazine to investigate any lapses in reporting, editing and fact-checking behind the story. We reached out to Steve Coll, dean of the Columbia School of Journalism, and a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter himself, who accepted our offer. We agreed that we would cooperate fully, that he and his team could take as much time as they needed and write whatever they wanted. They would receive no payment, and we promised to publish their report in full. (A condensed version of the report will appear in the next issue of the magazine, out April 8th.)

This report was painful reading, to me personally and to all of us at Rolling Stone. It is also, in its own way, a fascinating document * a piece of journalism, as Coll describes it, about a failure of journalism. With its publication, we are officially retracting 'A Rape on Campus.' We are also committing ourselves to a series of recommendations about journalistic practices that are spelled out in the report. We would like to apologize to our readers and to all of those who were damaged by our story and the ensuing fallout, including members of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity and UVA administrators and students. Sexual assault is a serious problem on college campuses, and it is important that rape victims feel comfortable stepping forward. It saddens us to think that their willingness to do so might be diminished by our failings.

Will Dana, Managing Editor

Rolling Stone

SStarr33 · Apr 26, 2015

I still can't believe Sabrina Rubin Erdely was not fired for UVA rape story.

Worst journalism 2014: cringeworthy news blunders

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