Thanks to JammieWearingFool and McClatchy Watch who both link to this post and include "heroic" photos.
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Yesterday I posted N&O Fell For Bogus Atlantic Swimmer Story.
The short of it: On Feb. 7 the McClatchy Company's Raleigh N&O went with an AP story about 56-year-old Jennifer Figge becoming "the first woman on record to swim across the Atlantic Ocean" while "battling waves of up to 30 feet" along the way.
Nice.
Except the story was bogus and the AP and the N&O have since published corrections.
BUT!!!
McClatchy's N&O has copyrights on photos of Figge and her "event" that you'll find linked at newsobserver.com beside the story.
You can click on the "Buy" button which will take to N&O Photo Store.
Go there and you'll see the N&O has some great deals. A 5 by 7 photo is only $9.99 unframed or $54.95 framed.
I'm sure the N&O hopes you decide that for the special someone you love, a framed 16 by 20 Figge photo at just $119.95 is the perfect Valentine gift.
Question: Was the N&O influenced to go with Figge's bogus story because it could sell the photos and frames?
Now for any who believe McClatchy's N&O is so serious about its "journalistic standards" that days after admitting the story was bogus it wouldn't still be selling framed photos of Figge and her "event," just look below at what I copied a few minutes ago.
newsobserver.com
| ;void(0);) Any copyright watermarks shown above do NOT appear on prints. The image above is for display purposes only and may appear blurry on your screen. Actual prints are made from high-resolution files for perfect reproduction. | |
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3 comments:
Perhaps publisher Quarles can explain this at the same time he explains why his newspaper published the inflammatory news stories in March 2006 — stories that helped set the table for Nifong's criminal frame of the lacrosee players.
Obviously the N&O does not haave a fact checker. Perhaps publisher Quarles should take a look at an article written by John McPhee in the current issue of The New Yorker "Checkpoints". The essay concerns the checking of facts in all articles that are published in The New Yorker. He states the following: "An error is everlasting. ....once an error gets into print 'it will live on and on in libraries carefully catalogued, scrupulously indexed....silicon chipped, deceiving researcher after researcher down through the ages, all of whom will make new errors on the strength of the original errors, and so on and oninto an exponential explosion of errata'." (p.59)
The failure of Quarles crack reporters to check their facts both in the Figge "Atlantic Ocean crossing" as well as in the myriad of articles on the lacrosse case demonstrate just how easy it is for great damage to be done - to the humans whose lives are changed forever (the lacrosse case is a prime example)as well as to the credibility of news organizations (the Figge case) when certain things just don't add up.
cks
Hellooooo, hellooo? Stupid people? Can you hear me? Good. Now, listen up. I'll type very slowly so you can follow along:
This story never ran in the paper. It is an Associated Press that was included on the paper's web site. The story was not edited by anyone besides the AP.
The N&O, like practically every other newspaper, gives readers full access to the AP's world and nation report. It's a reader service, and god forbid the paper should be accused of covering up anything.
Information, as they says, wants to be free. Of course, with free information, you get what you pay for. Had you purchased the print edition of the paper, editors would have scrutinized this story and perhaps caught the AP's imbecility.
The picture is for sale because one can buy any picture on the paper's web site. This is called capitalism. If you wish to purchase and frame a picture of the hoax swimmer to remind yourself daily of the mainstream media's incompetence and perfidy, knock yourself out.
And finally, get out and get some fresh air. The weather is beautiful today. You all need more of a life.
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