WH social media screw-up

Dan Scavino's screw-up

In a 3:30pm tweet, White House social media director Dan Scavino said he was sharing Irma social media intel with President Trump and Vice President Pence on an hourly basis. Then he said: "Here is Miami International Airport. STAY SAFE!!" The video showed water covering the runway. Anyone covering the storm immediately knew this was not a video from MIA. It was illogical. It was actually from Mexico City.

The airport's Twitter account quickly refuted this "fake news." MIA tweeted at Scavino, "This video is not from Miami International Airport." First, he deleted the tweet and pretended like it didn't happen. Later, he posted a correction: "Thank you. It was among 100s of videos/pics I am receiving re: Irma from public. In trying to notify all, I shared - have deleted. Be safe!"

Look, we all make mistakes on social media. But this was a whopper... in the middle of a natural disaster. Newsrooms have social media teams to verify this sort of stuff. Doesn't the U.S. government?

Thursday, April 27, 2017

Find me on the Ethics Adviceline . . .

https://ethicsadvicelineforjournalists.org/about-us/

I am on duty every five weeks. You can also find me at my CSU email address, Lee.peck@colostate.edu,  or at lpeck8040@gmail.com; cell number is 970-214-0124.

Monday, April 3, 2017

From the Columbia Journalism Review: An update on Fox News

The Fox News paradox: success amidst scandal
A dilemma for media-watchers: The nation’s leading cable news network sees its founding boss forced out, loses one of its up-and-coming stars to a rival, is the subject on an ongoing federal investigation, and—yesterday—finds a story of sexual harassment and secret settlements involving its most visible on-air talent on the front page of The New York Times. And yet, Fox News Channel just celebrated its biggest ratings quarter ever.

The impetus for this check-in with Fox is yesterday’s A1 Times story on a series of allegations of sexual harassment or other inappropriate behavior by Bill O’Reilly. The Times’s Emily Steel and Michael S. Schmidt report that the network has stood behind one of it’s most valuable assets even as “five women...have received payouts from either Mr. O’Reilly or the company in exchange for agreeing to not pursue litigation or speak about their accusations against him.”

O’Reilly’s treatment of women has been documented in the past, but doesn’t seem to have affected his standing as a leading voice at Fox News. Last summer, the ouster of former Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes highlighted a persistent culture of harassment at the network.