It is an old rule of journalism that it is better to get it right than to get it first.
But after seeing how reporters reacted Sunday to news of retired NBA star Kobe Bryant’s death, you could be forgiven for thinking that such a rule no longer exists, if it ever existed at all.
The former Los Angeles Laker was among nine people killed Sunday morning in a helicopter crash in Southern California. The other victims include Bryant’s 13-year-old daughter Gianna, one of her basketball teammates, the teammate’s parent, and the pilot.
Those are the facts. Everything else you may have heard about the victims of the crash is false. These falsehoods, it turns out, come almost entirely from reporters at mainstream news outlets. Of the journalists who fell down on the job Sunday, none fell harder than ABC News’s Matt Gutman, who inexplicably repeated a rumor on air, alleging Bryant had died in the helicopter crash along with his four daughters.
“The fact that four of his children are believed to be on that helicopter with him, all daughters, one of them a newborn, is simply devastating,” he said during a live broadcast, adding, “Hoping that this is not the case, but, you know, from the police reports right now, it appears that Kobe Bryant is down in that helicopter.”
ABC affiliates soon picked up Gutman’s erroneous reporting, with some claiming verbatim that “Bryant’s four daughters were also on board the helicopter.”
Erring in the other direction were reporters at other ABC affiliates, including one in Washington, where reporter Lindsey Mastis reported that “Kobe Bryant is survived by his wife and four children, so it does not appear they were on board the helicopter.”
Then, there is ESPN, which reported that the victims included retired NBA player Rick Fox, who is definitely not dead.
In summation:
ABC: Kobe Bryant and 4 children killed.
FOX: Kobe Bryant and 3 others killed.
TMZ: Kobe Bryant survived by wife and 4 daughters.
I hope some people lose their jobs today for rushing reports.
— Andrew Doughty (@Adoughty88) January 26, 2020
In the age of social media, reporters have more opportunities than ever to get it first, which is a huge plus in the era of split-second information. Unfortunately, these opportunities often come at the cost of getting it right. On Sunday, after first reports came in that Bryant had died, this lopsided trade-off became clearer than ever.
