David Jenkins: Tragic crash brings out irresponsible journalism

On Sunday, I was glued to the television and internet, like many others, as the news of Kobe Bryant dying in a helicopter crash broke. But as the day progressed, I not only found myself sad at the passing of a famous basketball player, his daughter, and seven others but also ashamed at what my profession has become.

As the news came out, there was so much misinformation and so many errors; it was hard to know what was true and what wasn’t. Online reports, including tweets from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which one would assume to be an official authority, had five people dying in the crash. Of course, now we know that number was nine, not five, but at the time, it led to people clamoring to find out who died along with Kobe.

Some reporters said all of Kobe’s children were with him while other reports had former basketball player and actor Rick Fox among the deceased. Again, both were wrong.

During his first press conference, the Los Angeles County Sheriff took time to scold TMZ for breaking that Kobe Bryant was killed even before notifications had been made to the family.

I have said for several years that social media would be the ruin of mankind. With 68 million Twitter users in the United States and roughly 262 million international Twitter users and 2.45 billion people worldwide using Facebook, social media has become an integral part of our lives. Along with that, everyone has a voice, and there are a lot of people who want to be heard. Many want to be heard in a negative way, laughing at other people’s expense, making comments they would never make to a person’s face, spewing hate and spreading drama.

Along with that, social media is killing journalism. The goal seems to no longer be right, but to be first. Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I think that is wrong.

I grew up in a time when you wanted to get the story right and break it in the next day’s paper. But now, it is how fast can you get it online. And it isn’t even full stories. It is just tidbits of information that will eventually develop into a story. Of course, many don’t even want to read the stories anymore; they just want the tidbits of pertinent information.

The problem with that was on full display Sunday. With the misinformation and errors, people were begging for information but didn’t know what to believe. It wasn’t until a press conference several hours later that it was even confirmed how many people were killed in the crash.

As much as I want to put all the blame on social media, it is the journalists who are at fault. That is because, as journalists, we know it is our job to report the news, not rumors, to the public. There is a great line from the “Newsroom” television show that aired several years ago that fit Sunday, “It’s a person. A doctor pronounces you dead, not the news.”

Sometimes it is fine to not be first but to be right. As reporters, we hear rumors all the time, but we don’t report it. If you can’t get confirmation from an official source, no matter how great the tip is, you can’t report it. At least that is how I was taught.

The world continues to change and, along with it, is journalism. But one thing hasn’t changed, and that is that the job of a journalist is to educate the public about events and issues. You can’t do that if you don’t have the trust of the public. As the push to be first increases, so does the reporting of “fake news,” and in turn, the credibility of journalists decreases. Something has to give, or soon the local news will be nothing more than talk around the water cooler.

David Jenkins is co-editor of the Standard Democrat.