The Danger of Always Being On

April 20th, 2010 9:17am - Posted By: Peggy Gonder

The New York Times introduced a video newscast on its web site in late March featuring the daily meeting where editors and reporters plan stories for the next day's paper.  "TimesCast" often includes video and photography from the world's hotspots.  Clark Hoyt, who writes "The Public Editor" column for the Times, pointed out several gaffes from the webcasts, as well as posts on Twitter and Facebook that have come back to bite the reporters who posted them.

On the second day of the webcast, executive editor Bill Keller misspoke about a sensitive story involving Israel.  In the meeting, he said Britain had expelled the head of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency "in retribution for the Israeli's having assassinated a Hamas militant in Dubai."  At the time, the British had not accused Israel of the assassination. And the Times had not established that the person sent home was the Mossad station chief, Hoyt wrote.

When a Reuter's reporter complained about the characterization, Keller was embarrassed.  "This is why I went into print rather than TV," he wrote back.  The TimesCast is taped and edited.  In retrospect, the editor said he should have said "cut" and given a more careful summary of the story in progress.

A Times business reporter in Japan, annoyed due to lack of sleep and a newsmakers' refusal to take questions, Tweeted "Toyota sucks."  And two Times bloggers fell for April Fools Day hoaxes. 

The Times is trying to attract new readers by embracing new media. But these gaffes reveal the dangers of publishing too quickly and letting down one's guard on microblogging sites like Twitter where the style is casual. 

"The technology may be new, the speed faster, the culture different, but in journalism, the old rules still apply," Hoyt writes.  "Be skeptical, check it out."

Companies and organizations can fall victim to the same embarrassing "foot in mouth" situations at the fast pace of new media.  Some common sense practices can help:

1. Establish a social media policy for employees that states their comments can reflect back on the organization, even if they are commenting as an individual.

2. Encourage employees to re-read their Tweets and Facebook posts and pause before hitting "send" to make sure they will not regret the communication later.

3. Companies should choose bloggers who, by temperment, will exercise caution in their language. Establish guidelines for blog topics and other parameters for what is appropriate for posts.

4. Videos produced for the web should be checked by more than one person for errors and tone of voice that might have negative repercussions.

5. Correct errors promptly. Since videos can live on forever on You Tube, it's best to avoid mistakes.  But the public appreciates efforts to set the record straight.

Posted in: Media Relations

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