[Infowarrior] - CNN & Fox's "Dewey Beats Truman" incident

[Richard Forno]

(screenshots of the 'news' at the link provided.  And the last paragraph is something ALL news and 'news' outlets need to remember each and every day. --rick)

CNN's mistake on Obama health care ruling historic

3 m ago By LANE FILLER

http://www.newsday.com/opinion/viewsday-1.3683911/cnn-s-mistake-on-obama-health-care-ruling-historic-1.3810723

Finally, with today’s Supreme Court decision, a decades-long battle is over: “Dewey Beats Truman,” is no longer the biggest major screw-up in American media history.

In other news, it was a pretty good day in the decades-long battle to ensure lots and lots of health care deprived Americans.

CNN, in full-throated Wolf Blitzer-mode, fell victim to the biggest fallacy of the modern news media -- that it’s really important to have the story first, even if it's only by, say, a nanosecond. The network announced that the Affordable Care Act, and the mandate that all Americans who can afford it must buy health insurance, had been struck down, the exact opposite of what happened.

Fox News also misunderstood the ruling, and originally announced the mandate to buy health care or pony up money to the government had been struck down, but figured out the mistake much more quickly. On any other day, Fox's gaffe might have become the stuff of media legend, but CNN's goof seems the have eclipsed Fox's in the public consciousness.

Let me ask this: Do you actually know who broadcast this Supreme Court decision first? No? Do you know who broadcast any of these breaking news items first:

	• The death of Osama bin Laden?
	• The attack on the World Trade Center?
	• The death of Princess Diana?
	• The death of Saddam Hussein?

Personally, I don’t have the slightest idea, and I love media like an aerobics instructor loves boneless, skinless chicken breasts.

What matters is being right. Who the hell cares if you can be counted on to be first if you can’t be reliably accurate. Wolf Blitzer, and CNN, may have just written their own epitaphs, and those, at least, will probably recount today’s events as they actually happened.

---
Just because i'm near the punchbowl doesn't mean I'm also drinking from it.