Edwards is dropping out!!! Oops, not so much... The blogosphere has been abuzz today with the Politico's goof this morning about John Edward's press conference announcement. While blogger Ben Smith has written a long apology and explanation about how he got it wrong, it's raised some questions about the trustworthiness and responsibility of bloggers - especially those who are widely read, such as the Politico (here at Inky Mountain I can be as irresponsible and full of shit as I please, although I'll try hard not to be).
A little background: The John Edwards campaign announced yesterday he and his wife Elizabeth would be holding a press conference today at noon with "an announcement about his campaign." Overnight, after word spread that Elizabeth, who has battled breast cancer, had visited a doctor that day, the little squirrels at their keyboards had determined that a) her cancer was back, b) it would require intensive treatment and c) Edwards was ending or pausing his campaign for the Democratic nomination.
The squirrels were wrong.
Forty-five minutes before the press conference began, Smith posted a story with this headline: "Edwards to Suspend Campaign." Within minutes the story had been picked up by other blogs. Then, after probably gulping with bug-eyed, semi-respectable blogger horror, he had to change it to this: "Edwards Campaign to Continue." Soon after, Smith posted his mea culpa, which in part read:
It's that last point that gets me. Was Edwards' announcement so incredibly important that we couldn't wait 45 minutes longer for the news? It's not like Smith was the only person to hear Edwards was dropping out. Even I awoke to an e-mail this morning (from a listserve) that said this: "Rumor says his wife may be very sick and under these conditions he cannot continue. Rumor says he will announce at noon tomorrow from chapel hill.""Though I’ve spent the last several years at major newspapers – the New York Observer and the New York Daily News most recently – I’ve done much of my reporting on blogs, and have developed an instinct to let my readers know whatever I know, as soon as I know it. The medium typically allows you to refine and update a story as it changes – including saying, “Well, my original source had it wrong.”
But the scale of this story was simply too big to report that way, to share information with high but imperfect confidence – and without making that level of confidence crystal clear. I should have waited for a second source, or hedged the item much more fully. Or simply waited for the news conference like everybody else."
To Smith's credit, lots of times rumors that spread this quickly and widely are often true. But often they're not. And that's why you should never, ever believe anything you see or hear. Ever.
Just kidding. Hey Smith, when are those rumors about Cheney resigning going to come true?
P.S. I'd like to give a shout out to the editor of Wonkette, who seemed to know not to trust what the Politico thought it trusted it knew, and showed us how the pros report rumors:
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