Oops! They're not really dead

[zakur]

CNN postings send some to early graves (http://news.com.com/2100-1025-997367.html)

Rumors of their demise were greatly exaggerated, one could say, when CNN accidentally made publicly available obituaries of several international figures who are in fact still among the living.

Meeting this premature fate were the likes of U.S. vice president Dick Cheney, former president Ronald Reagan, Cuban leader Fidel Castro, Pope John Paul II and South African political icon Nelson Mandela. Their obituaries were mockups prepared in advance of the actual events.

CNN spokeswoman Edna Johnson said the obituary pages were never posted among the news items on CNN.com itself.

[Crossbow]

That just goes to show how desperate the news organization are for 'scoops'.

It seems to me, that many of them do not double-check their sources prior to publication anymore. They just throw out the raw news as they get, and if it turns out to be wrong, then they just issue a correction later on.

Which is something I find rather strange, because in most cases it would not take very long to check the data (such as calling the person in question and asking if they are actually dead or not). In other words, they could become a news organization that is timely and credible. Wow! How amazing is that?

Ugh!

[Mercutio]

If I am not mistaken, any major news organization will keep active obit files on major figures. That way they can just pull them up, tweak the intro and conclusion for whatever cause or situation of death, and cut, paste, and make the first news cycle.

I read an autobiography of one of the NYTimes editors (I think that's his position--I believe the book was called "the good life", but I may be mistaken), who writes that one of his early journalist jobs was updating obits. His shock at seeing obits of live people was natural, but it makes sense from the paper's standpoint. Or CNN's.

[RandFan]

There was an SNL skit where Dana Carvey plays Peter Jenings pre-recordingan obit for Ford with various scenarious. It was damn funny. Guess you had to be there.

[swellman]

From what I've read, this error was really a case of password protection for an internal CNN server being accidently disabled. Several obits for famous folks stored on that server where therefore accessible through the web, if one knew where to look. The obits were not displayed on the CNN splash page.

As pointed out earlier, all major news organizations keep such obits handy, so that they can be rapidly released when the time comes.

I confess, it does seem a morbid practice.

[Crossbow]

The fact is that they do not seem to be checking these facts too well.

There was a case where it was reported that Bob Hope was dead, which really surprised him when he heard it on the radio while eating breakfast.

[swellman]

Originally posted by Crossbow
The fact is that they do not seem to be checking these facts too well.

There was a case where it was reported that Bob Hope was dead, which really surprised him when he heard it on the radio while eating breakfast.

I agree with you in general. The release of Bob Hope's obit a few years back was made all the worse when a senator stood up to announce the sad news. He had to later stand and make a red faced apology once the news wires issued a retraction.

There are many cases on all levels of the modern media rushing to get the story out first, accuracy be damned. Folks on this forum often mention the 48 hour rule, and in many cases it's been a sensible policy to follow. Especially news surrounding the war.

[Smalso]

There was a rumor several years ago that some of the big news organization have headlines and outlines of stories announcing the second coming/rapture.

[Knightmare6]

*Sigh*

Gotta love the journalistic integrity...

[Aoidoi]

Er... I don't think I've ever heard of a case of a premature obit that was due to lax fact checking. This one was due to a technical glitch, as has every other one I've heard of. As mentioned, they have obits ready "just in case." They aren't released in error because some reporter thinks the guy is actually dead, they're released because somebody screws up and accidently posts an article (or removes a password) that leads to a premature release.

Not that I have particular respect for the "journalistic integrity" of the media, but this seems more of the "oops, clicked the wrong button" than "screw the facts, print it anyway" type of incident.

I took a tour of the New York Times in the early 70s. The highlight was when they took us to what they called the "morgue." It was pre-written obituaries of famous people who weren't dead yet. They showed us Hubert Humphrey's. I thought it was pretty cool.

Long before 24 hour news and such. It is regular business practice.

It actually is a sign of good "journalistic integrity." If they waited until the person actually died to compose a biography/obituary from scratch, how accurate do you think that would be?

[Aoidoi]

Whatever became of Hubert?
Has anyone heard a thing?
Once he shown
on his own
now he sits
all alone
and waits for
the phone
to ring...

(I didn't even know who he was before I heard this song.)

[Smalso]

Originally posted by LukeT
I took a tour of the New York Times in the early 70s. The highlight was when they took us to what they called the "morgue." It was pre-written obituaries of famous people who weren't dead yet. They showed us Hubert Humphrey's. I thought it was pretty cool.

Long before 24 hour news and such. It is regular business practice.

It actually is a sign of good "journalistic integrity." If they waited until the person actually died to compose a biography/obituary from scratch, how accurate do you think that would be?

That's what I heard. It's pretty much a standard practice.