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That's true. But in every case, someone else in the media points that out very quickly, and usually within hours the problem self-corrects. A great example is
by pharrlax 10y ago
That's true. But in every case, someone else in the media points that out very quickly, and usually within hours the problem self-corrects.
A great example is the Oval Office MLK bust. A reporter tweeted that it seemed to be missing and it quickly went viral, but within an hour, virtually every reporter and network had realized their error and retracted it.
95% of the people who heard about it heard it not from the hour of media discussion but from the days of administration complaining about that hour afterward. If the administration really was against the spread of false information, that would seem rather counterproductive -- but it seems more like the administration is going out of its way to paint a narrative that the media lies, despite this robust self-correction in every instance.
- pessimizer 10y agoThe retractions are seen and remembered by a tiny percentage of the people who incorporate the original story into their world view and continue to spread it, and given a tiny fraction of the coverage (in time and space) of the original story. If not for the administration constantly talking about it since, it would still be perceived as true.
- arctangent 10y agoAnd of course the accusers know this - it's Politics 101. There's an old saying: "Throw enough mud against the wall and some of it will stick."
- mcphage 10y agoIf not for the administration constantly talking about it since, most people wouldn't even know there was ever a discussion about it. Which is why the administration keeps talking about it.
- have_faith 10y agoThe incentive is to publish a story first. At the speed of information spreading on the internet that means no time for fact checking any more. A story can reach peak viral before a correction or retraction is even considered. The original story has already gone viral and and may continue spreading long after a correction is made and the media are fully aware of this. It allows them to claim to update stories with facts as they appear but also allows them to publish unsubstantiated stories quickly to get views with no repercussions. You're right that the administration are constantly making stories worse for themselves in how they react, I completely agree. But it's not a case of MSM = bad and Trump admin = good. They both have serious flaws. When I look at my Facebook feed I don't see a flood of corrected stories and retractions unless they have an invested interest in that particular story and happen to support the side being wronged. My Trump supporting friends don't pipe up when the MSM is unfair to a liberal candidate and vice versa.
- Chris2048 10y agoDoes Trump own a dressing gown, and walk around the whitehouse in it? "whitehouse officials" say so, but we have no idea who.