Mike Wise was suspended for trying to pull a “goof” on other media outlets.
Whoops.
I think the suspension is harsh but deserved. Mike and the Washington Post are beacons of process and hopefully journalistic integrity. This joke crossed the line. Mike is paying a steep price. He has taken accountability for his actions which is the first step in atonement. I know for I have made lots of mistakes in my life and career as well. And Twitter has a technical glitch – it needs to be held accountable, too, to its users for lack of uptime!
Playing with integrity is a third rail for journalists. Don’t touch.
Read this one. What do you think?
Trusting media outlets who never source anything is like trusting politicians to keep their campaign promises. Mike Wise didn’t need to pull a journalistic faux pas to know that any report should be considered incredible unless or until it either comes directly from a bona fide source or it comes from two independent and usually credible sources. And even then anything which begins with “Source(s)” or “Report” is most often tabloid-type garbage. Journalism ruined its own credibility by failing to ever source anything. It didn’t need Mike Wise’s help.
Speaking of atonement, any idea when Gilbert will publicly address the media/fans about his actions. An article in the paper just doesn’t cut it. Thanks!
As a former community newspaper reporter, I just think Mike simply should’ve told his editor what he was planning to do. No doubt the editor would’ve told Mike, “BAD idea! Don’t do it.”
I also get the impression between blogging, columns, a radio show and Washington Post Live TV appearances, he’s spreading himself too then and probably forgetting that “oh wait, I’m a journalist.” Hopefully it’ll be a good wakeup call for him.
A good practice (which I do not always follow) is if one has an doubt about the wisdom of a particular email or FB comment being banged out on oen’s keyboard, he or she should wait an hour or so before hitting send. More often than not, the message doesn’t get sent. In the fast-paced world that is new and social media, it seems harder and harder to pause before hitting send. You have to believe, though, had Wise reflected on what he was about to Tweet, he wouldn’t have done it.
It’s an interesting dilemma as personal and professional identities become more and more convergent with the march of technology.
While I do think the punishment is justified, as many pundits have noted, it was pretty obvious from the get-go that his tweets were without merit. With new media, there is a rapid and iterative feedback loop in unearthing the truth, and I’d like to think that the bigger story here is that the truth was discovered before a single drop of ink hit the pulp – THAT speaks to the immediacy and power of new media.
Now, instead of saying it himself, what if someone else had said what he did, and Wise retweeted it? Still the same integrity issues?