Stories that start innocent enough often morph into something else.
Do you remember that game of “telephone” you played in elementary school?
The first person in the circle makes an innocent statement to the next person. “Mrs. Teacher is going on vacation to Hawaii next week.”
By the time it gets passed along to the end of the circle the statement has morphed into “Mrs. Teacher’s husband is buying Antarctica and moving their because he hates Mrs. Teacher and never wants to see her again.”
Sometimes the internet seems like that.
Consider an article I wrote on February 2 about the Pac-10 filing a UDRP with WIPO to get Pac12.com.
By the time the USA Today picked it up it had morphed into a lawsuit that could lead to a financial settlement.
That’s simply not true.
Then AllHipHop.com quoted the USA Today article, saying “According to the USA Today, representatives for Pac-10 are hoping to reach a settlement with the owner of the domain.”
Hmm. It doesn’t appear any representative of the Pac-10 has commented on this matter to USA Today. AllHipHop twisted USA Today’s already twisted information about a possible financial settlement to get to this.
One person you don’t want to talk to right now about this game of internet telephone is DNJournal editor Ron Jackson.
While at DOMAINfest he lamented to a group of bloggers about how the media always screws up quotes. Less than a week later his comments about the illness following DOMAINfest have quickly morphed.
Jackson told the New York Post that one member of a four person contingent from Sweden was diagnosed with legionnelosis. The Post quoted Jackson as saying all four of them contracted the illness.
By the time this story went on ABC’s morning show, it turned into “at least four” Swedish participants being diagnosed with legionnaire’s disease.
BIG FRANK says
you mean ‘chinese whispers’?
‘telephone’ LOL
Ron Jackson says
Your are right on Andrew. I am disgusted with how most mainstream media outlets have willfully misrepresented this story. The Good Morning America producer called me Saturday morning and the first thing she said was “We want to do a story on this Legionnaire’s Disease Outbreak at the Playboy Mansion?” I explained to her that there is no proof whatsoever that any such thing happened. I also pointedly told her that the NY Post story quoting me as saying four people had been diagonosed with legionellosis was WRONG. Yet on GMA this morning they repeated the information that had been told was not true. By late afternoon I was getting calls from all kinds of outlets but stopped talking with any of them because it was clear they already had a story in mind and they were not going to let the facts get in the way. This is not the kind of journalism I was taught and it is a very sad thing for me to see.
Ron Jackson says
It gets even better. I see that TMZ.com stole a copyrighted photo from DNJournal.com and posted it on their site without any any authorization whatsoever. This is plain and simple THEFT. I guess there are no rules at all any more.
Andrew Allemann says
@ Ron – I saw that photo and knew I had seen it somewhere before.
Time to call Righthaven. You could get some nice press out of going after TMZ 🙂
Ron Jackson says
Might be a good idea Andrew, but I don’t know about “nice press” – the press would almost certainly get that story wrong too.
Paul Keating says
Ron – as in Ron Jackson steals story and photo from Righthaven and then contracts legionnaire’s disease along with “at least” four (4) Swedes.
I can see it now on CNN!!!!
domain guy says
right this is the way journalism works today. specifically fox news who orginate stories,opinions,supress the facts and distribute it through their channels.
it is not pretty and hurts companies,people and the usa.
Acro says
Well-said. Reminds me of the post I made about the very same subject of “broken telephone” http://acro.net/blog/2008/06/02/broken-telephone-israel-dot-com/
It’s unfortunate that in the case of Domainfest, the “trump card” is the Playboy Mansion. That’s all that the media will be focusing on, even the term “domainer” is being carefully omitted.
Meyer says
I understand that someone contracted
a flesh eating bacteria (necrotizing fasciitis)
while attending a domain meeting in LA.
Most likely was spread from a handshake.
The original carrier has not been determined.
(false story.
Maybe, Theo should run with it.)
Jeff Schneider says
Hello Andrew,
I have a healthy mistrust of media news and its efficacy. Lots of news releases are nothing more than dreamed up forms of mind control. I learned long ago to watch people and react to what they are actually doing and not what they are saying on Public Stage.
Zak Muscovitch says
I always find it interesting to see how a story that I am familiar with is covered by the media; as if they get that story wrong, imagine how they get wrong other stories that one is not familiar with….
Andrew Allemann says
@ Zak – a-men. I once saw an article in The Economist that got its facts wrong. It shook my faith in the rest of what I read and (generally) take at face value in the publication.