The Best and Worst of 2013
A great list of media errors and corrections -- from Craig Silverman writing at
Poynter:
The best and worst media errors and corrections in 2013
Error of the Year: �60 Minutes� Benghazi report
As is often the case with Error of the Year, the award is given partly because of the mistake itself, and partly because of the mistake�s fallout.
In late October �60 Minutes� aired a report that called into question the official version of what happened when the U.S. diplomatic compound was attacked in Benghazi, Libya. At the core of the story was a source, Dylan Davies, who worked as a security contractor for the State Department. Davies had a book coming out that purported to share new facts about what happened that night, and what he did.
Problem one: he lied to the show about what he did and saw, thereby making a core piece of evidence in the �60 Minutes� counter-narrative false and undercutting the entire segment.
Problem two: it only took days for other news outlets, such as The Washington Post and The New York Times, to reveal significant flaws with the story, and with Davies. The Times in particular received details from an important FBI interview with Davies that CBS News somehow never managed to get or check prior to airing the story.
A lot more at the site -- some are simple typos (including a newspaper misspelling its own name when announcing a Journalism Award.)
Others are really egregious examples of poor fact checking and media bias.
Of course, they had to include this howler from Oakland, CA station KTVU-TV regarding the Asiana flight 214 in July:
Posted by DaveH at January 16, 2014 1:16 PM