Another Sad Day For Journalism

With newspapers across the U.S. laying off staff almost daily, there has been a big push lately by these struggling papers to have readers send in stories and photos to balance out their coverage. For the papers, it’s great. They get FREE content, like all those cute cat and dog photos that I see on S.F. Chronicle’s website. Its not news, but people love that stuff. It generates hits and advertisers like that. But what about when so-called “citizen journalists” send in stories? People with no real training or understanding of ethics in journalism are providing opinion based commentary to sway a story in the favor of their cause or just flat out lying about the facts.
I was appalled to read yesterday that a “report” on CNN’s contributor based iReport.com website was claiming that Apple CEO Steve Jobs had suffered a “major heart attack” and was being rushed to a hospital. This seemingly grave news was leaked and sent Apple’s stock into a tailspin, falling close to 10 percent within minutes of the “rumor” before recovering to end the session down to a one year low.

Are you kidding me? It makes me sick that a “story” (or in this case a fairy tale) on a website that is geared towards Joe six pack wannabe reporters and faux-tographers would be given credibility and be allowed to sway the stock market. Why was this story allowed to become fact before it was found to be untrue? It makes no sense that facts weren’t checked before this rumor was leaked into the financial world. Stories like this need to be investigated and fact checked before being leaked. It is insanely irresponsible for any credible news agency to reveal such a rumor based on some random person on a website like iReport.com. Journalism is hurting and stuff like this does nothing to help our cause.

To think that shareholders of Apple stock took a financial hit yesterday because someone thought it would be funny to play a little joke or to get ahead in a short sale of Apple stock while under the guise of a “reporter.” Hopefully, the person that did this will be held accountable for their actions and made an example of so people don’t pull stunts like this in the future.

If people want to snap photos of car crashes and whatever else they stumble upon while going about their daily lives, great. Photographers and reporters can't be everywhere. Sometimes people luck out with a nice frame on their point and shoot. But there is no place in the world of journalism for people who set up a situation so it appears to be news. It disgusts me that contributors of this nature are associated with professional journalism by calling them “citizen journalists.” Can I be a citizen pilot the next time I fly to New York? How about citizen doctor? I'm sure I can do a triple bypass operation, no problem.

Let’s be real here, these people aren’t journalists and shouldn’t be labeled as such. It is really killing the already struggling credibility of journalism.