One more time, for good measure: The best way for media to combat the rise of fake news is to re-establish its own credibility.
Newsrooms have to be extra careful to get the facts straight. If they want to win back audiences that have gone to alternative sources for information, media need to prove they’re trustworthy.
In short, media need to do the exact opposite of what Gizmodo did this week when it published a report detailing the incoming Trump administration’s plans (or lack thereof) for the National Nuclear Security Administration.
The report’s original headline read, “Trump Just Dismissed the People in Charge of Maintaining Our Nuclear Arsenal.”
Shocking stuff indeed.
As it turns out, the story was greatly oversold.
The Gizmodo article, which was based on the say-so of a single anonymous source, claimed originally, “[T]he President-elect’s team instructed the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration and his deputy to clean out their desks when Trump takes office on January 20th.”
The Trump transition team is vacating all positions filled by the Obama administration, regardless of whether replacements have been found, the article explained.
This means Trump’s team has emptied the office that ensures our nukes are in good working order, and the president-elect has no immediate plans to fill those spots, it added.
The anonymous source told the newsgroup, “I’m more and more coming around to the idea that we’re so very, very fucked.”
However, Gizmodo appears to have gotten way over its skis. The story’s headline has been changed, and the article has been updated to include this lengthy and narrative-altering correction:
Another NNSA official, speaking on background to Gizmodo and Defense News, has disputed this report as “inaccurate” …
After speaking to our source for clarification, we have updated the story and headline to reflect that, while Klotz and Creedon have submitted their resignations, intend to depart on January 20, and have not been asked by the Trump transition to stay past that date, the Trump team has not explicitly instructed them to leave or “clean out their desks,” as we reported. According to our source, both officials “have expressed [to the Trump team] that they would likely be willing to stay to facilitate a smooth transition, if asked,” as is the tradition for key officials, and have received no response.
The second anonymous NNSA official did confirm, however, that, “there have been no discussions between the president-elect’s transition team and any of NNSA’s political appointees on extending their public service past Jan. 20.”
Translation: It appears Trump’s team has not yet discussed replacements for the two outgoing NNSA officials. It also appears that there have been no discussions about keeping those officials on past Jan. 20.
But this is still a long way off from claiming Trump, “just dismissed the people in charge of maintaining our nuclear arsenal.”
Also annoying is the fact that the correction came only after media pundits and journalists shared the story all over social media:
Damage done.
There has been no shortage of stories exploring the extent to which fake news influenced the election. There has also been a long and steady supply of media personalities stressing the need for the press weed out and combat the rise of hoax reporting.
This Gizmodo stories isn’t helping.
An important distinction needs to be made between fake news and plain, old sloppy journalism.
There’s an obvious difference between a “report” claiming Pope Francis endorsed Donald Trump, which has no basis in reality whatsoever, and a story botching the details of the Jan. 20 NNSA transition.
The problem is that sloppy and misleading journalism obscures the line between fact and total fiction, which forces audiences to search out more credible sources of information.
This opens the door for fake news-peddling grifters to swoop in and take advantage of the growing demand for trustworthy reporting. Though there is a difference between fake news and lousy reporting, the former is enabled and made stronger by the latter.
The surest way for media to beat back the fake stuff is to re-establish its own credibility. This means reporters need to be extra careful, and they need to make sure all the facts check out.
Basically, the exact opposite of what Gizmodo did this week.
