A friend died yesterday. There may be a hundred people more eligible to call him friend, but I knew him well and knew him to be a great person.
I found out about it over the Internet. I saw a strange comment on twitter as I was getting into town. Follow up seemed to confirm the accident. A facebook group and then an email removed any doubt.
I Googled the accident. A story from one of the local news affiliates gave a little more information. The single car crash took place 30 miles from here, shortly before 8am. The victim was 34. Alcohol was a factor, and he was not wearing a seat belt. A link reading “WATCH THE VIDEO” popped a map with audio of some douchebag reading the same teleprompter script, emphasizing the words was and was not.
I wrote the local newspaper, asking them to assign the story to a human. I was probably four hours too late. They printed the same script. A human later replied to my email asking if I had names they should talk to for their story. Apparently, the douchebag story will have a followup.
I Googled his name again a few minutes ago. The stories I mention above now rank higher than his facebook profile or his professional site.
I’d like to think the author of the original script was just being lazy, not taking a moment to consider whether or not the negative speculation was a necessary addition to the story. It’s worse if not. This accident was very sudden. Friends and family are searching against his name right now, looking for photos and posts or anything that can help them connect. But the top results belong to this lazy scribble posted and re-posted without regard for the people on the other side of the words.
We were supposed to have lunch to go over an idea soon. Maybe I should invite a lazy journalist now instead. I have a few things I could elaborate on.
4 Responses to “Decency”
Agreed on the “douchebag” editor who released the story. No personalization whatsoever. I found the exact same results as I too searched for quick information.
In the end, people will remember the person for how great he was and the idiocracy of the reporting will be erased in the minds of those who care.
The reality is that news likes to emphasis the negatives. Alcohol was involved always means “person was wasted” versus, “person was drinking the night before, possible low low levels of alcohol left in system from previous night, fell asleep at the wheel”. BTW - not sure that is the story here - do not call me to verify these details.
Old media needs a reboot. This idocracy now hangs out and continues to be indexed by search engines. There’s a new responsibility that very few journalists seem to be aware of.
My friend Candice and her boyfriend Owen died two years ago by a drunk driver. I recall being livid when the “journalists” in Hawaii got a bunch of details wrong…and seemed to dismiss their deaths as no big deal in favor of the culprit who was a cousin to the mayor of the island. Two years later, I know that her sister googles Candice’s name. I purposefully reposted a blog entry that I wrote in hope that it would rank higher than some of the horrible news stories.
Terrible story, Tara. Sorry to hear it. My guess is that friends and family will still be searching against their names 10 years from now as well. Simple mistakes and lazy reporting all of a sudden have a much wider impact.