Dak Dillon-US PRESSWIRE
Alabama Crimson Tide fans went through the stages of grief in record time Tuesday afternoon when it was reported that Tide quarterback AJ McCarron had a torn meniscus as a result of a sack during last Saturday’s game with the Missouri Tigers.
We too reported on the news, and were quickly contradicted by McCarron’s family and friends, leading to our retraction and correction. The original reporter breaking the news was then forced to walk it back within hours of the original report.
Nick Saban piled on Wednesday in his post-practice press conference, stating that reports of the injury were “totally, unridiculously true.” Saban’s comments were either a malapropism or a rehearsed line implying that the reports were not ridiculous at all, but simply irresponsible.
So why does something like a mistaken injury report spread across the country like wildfire? Whatever happened to journalism?
The simplest answer is the nature of the Internet. We’ve all become used to instant gratification, and the round-the-clock nature of sports means if you don’t get the scoop first, one of the thousands of other media outlets will.
Getting it first has in far too many cases trumped getting it right. Putting a report on the web – even with unconfirmed sourcing – before your competitors do means lots of eyeballs on your feature. Get it right, and you’re suddenly a player in the sports media. Get it wrong, and you’re just another hack exploiting a story for readership.
The rise of the Internet has been a mixed bag for traditional media. The ease with which anyone can post information for worldwide consumption means the old ways of running a news organization are passing away. Print newspapers are gradually becoming obsolete, and news organizations are being forced to become lean and mean. This leads to fewer reporters with fewer resources reporting on more information with shorter lead times.
In the case of the initial report, Russ Mitchell stated he had three sources on the injury. Those sources could have been trainers, players or someone in the office. They could have been second-hand rumors or even other reporters. Either way, Mitchell made the judgement that he had a story hot enough – if not solid enough – to run with. No presses to stop; publishing is as simple as hitting a button on a keyboard.
But the rules followed by traditional media still hold true. Earn the trust of your sources. Get them on record. Confirm, confirm, confirm. If in doubt, don’t run a story you’ll have to walk back later.
Our mea culpa over the AJ McCarron story isn’t our first and likely won’t be our last. BamaHammer isn’t interested in being wrong first; we’d rather be correct and be the last ones to the table. As fans of the Crimson Tide you deserve that. We will continue to gather the best information possible, and report responsibly. If events on the ground change, we’ll report that too.
Even if it means we look unridiculous.
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