Sunday, September 22, 2013

Trust for Facts

Who do you trust when it comes to getting facts and information? After the events of the past week with the Navy Yard shootings and the Kenya mall massacre, new outlets jump the gun, so to speak to be the first with the breaking news and it constantly changes. In the case of the Navy Yard shooting, the facts kept coming in, overlaying the misstatements and flat-out lies that had been generated only hours before. Security clearance questions arose; a history of mental illness popped up; the Department of Veterans Affairs was implicated for failure to see the carnage to come, as was the Department of the Navy for failing to pass along important police information about the shooter. The Virginia gun dealer took a few hits before the truth came out that nothing untoward or illegal had transpired when the shooter purchased not an assault rifle but a shotgun. Journalism has become a race to get the "facts" first, cleaned up by corrections later. It also seems like the slew of internet phone services and social media, we still cannot get the facts right. What are your thoughts on the subject of trust?

4 comments:

  1. We use phone services and the social sites for so much, most of the times we get things mixed up.

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  2. I think we rely on emails and texting for all of our communications and it isnt the same as talking face to face.

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  3. The social media and mobile application do not seem too strict about getting the fact right. There are always edits afterwards.

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  4. Even in business the communication services are usually texting. It can be just as professional.

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