A friend came in town this weekend and we went to the theatres to see 1917. While we were on our way to the movie, we struck up a conversation about how it seems like there’s always a race to be first on social media. A race to be the first to watch the latest Netflix show, to read the latest best-selling book, or to listen to the 15 new podcasts that were released last night. It feels like we’re trying to keep up with the Joneses. But, instead of keeping up with the Joneses in the traditional sense—by the accumulation of money and material goods—we’re now focused on how much pop culture we can shove into our heads and increase our social media clout. It’s exhausting.
Journalism is another area where there is a race to be the first to break a story—however, unlike the previous examples, this race can be quite dangerous. As I’m sure all of you have heard by now, a tragic event occurred on Sunday morning when NBA legend Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna were involved in a helicopter crash and did not survive. My first reaction—along with pretty much everyone else’s on my stream—was utter shock and disbelief that it was true. It’s one thing to lose a basketball legend—it’s another to lose a child at the same time. As a parent, I mourn for the survivors and can’t even imagine the pain they are going through right now.
As soon as I heard the news I tried to track down the sources to make sure it was legit and not a hoax or a high profile news account that got hacked. As it turned out, TMZ was the one who broke the story—which is strange to me.
Over the following two hours, multiple different media outlets began reporting on the Kobe situation. A sound bite from an ABC reporter said that “the fact that four of his children are believed to be on that helicopter with him, all daughters, one of them a newborn, is simply devastating.” I’m sorry, but this is something you have to be 1,000% sure about before reporting it on the national news. The only way to do that—in my opinion—is to either see the flight manifest with your own eyes or talk with Kobe’s wife Vanessa. Clearly neither were done because the report ended up being false.
Another reporter—with a verified badge on Twitter nonetheless—said that from “confirmed sources” none of Kobe’s daughters were involved in the wreck. Once it was confirmed that Gianna was on board, this reporter deleted the tweet and then commented afterwards that “their confirmed source was wrong.” Again, completely unacceptable journalism. Do better.
There were even reports that another NBA star, Rick Fox, was involved in the crash. Afterwards, that report was debunked after Rick Fox tweeted from his own account sending condolences to the Bryant family. Imagine being part of Rick Fox’s family and reading fake news on Twitter that he was involved in the crash. What an emotional roller coaster.
We still don’t have all the facts and I’m sure we will learn more throughout the week but I’m sure there is a lesson in here somewhere on how we handle ourselves in the era of real-time social media.
We all have a responsibility to make sure the things we share are true. I understand there are not always absolute truths but we have to be careful with what we say. It’s way too easy to send out a tweet with no consequences. It takes milliseconds to tap a button and potentially destroy someone’s life without doing any due diligence.
Maybe we should slow it down a little and reflect. I know I could do the same.
This is post #53. You can follow me on Twitter or Instagram or sign up for my free newsletter here. Also please check out my Amazon page for a full reading list.
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