Journalism 101: confirm the rumour then tweet…

March 21, 2013 4:54

There’s a reason they call Australian broadcaster Derryn Hinch the Human Headline. It’s tweets like this:

Unsurprisingly such a statement coming from a journalist, such as Hinch, quickly started to spread on social media.

But it also didn’t take long for the rumour to be quashed. The Australian’s Troy Bramston rang former Prime Minister Whitlam’s office and tweeted within 10 minutes of Hinch’s pronouncement:

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4 COMMENTS

Hmm 21 Mar 13

I would talk with such a self righteous tone about confirming or checking sources before going to print guys.

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Dan 22 Mar 13

Just confirms all that is wrong with journalism today. The desire to be first overcomes the desire to be right.

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Encyclic! 25 Mar 13

24 hour rolling news. And yet “being first” is a distinction..why?

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Brett 26 Mar 13

So it was left to two News Limited journos to do some fact checking and correct the rumour started by Hinch. Wonder what professional News Ltd hater Stephen Conroy has to say about that?

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