Early last week there was the tweet from actor Rob Lowe contending he’d learned that Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning was finished as a player.
And Saturday night there was the tweet from a Penn State University student online site that former football coach Joe Paterno had died.
Both were sent out via Twitter and immediately retweeted, posted and broadcast by others without any confirmation.
Both were wrong.
That makes them both reminiscent of last year’s erroneous tweet that Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords had died. Yet Sunday there she was, announcing that she would soon retire from the U.S. House of Representatives.
The Colts immediately discounted reports that Manning was washed up as a player. And Paterno’s sons immediately disputed reports that their father had died Saturday night. The legendary Nittany Lions coach did die Sunday morning.
The tweets and postings and retweets certainly point out that the journalist’s best friend and tool — verification and confirmation — are perhaps even more important today in this age of social media and ability to instantaneously reach millions of people with just a few key strokes.
Twitter, Facebook and other forms of social media have shown themselves to be valuable reporting tools. We use them daily here at The Tribune and at our sister papers with Home News Enterprises.
But if we make an error, we’ll hope it will be an error of being second but right rather than an error of being first but wrong.
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Dan Davis is editor of The Tribune. You may call him at 523-7051.
