So says
Lord Leveson, regarding journalists:
During a speech at the University of Melbourne, he insisted there was an
important difference between mainstream journalists with "a powerful
reputation for accuracy" and bloggers and tweeters who were "no more
than electronic versions of pub gossip".
Yet in the last 24 hours has been extensive coverage across the media - using cut 'n paste' - highlighting a video purporting to show
a Golden Eagle trying to snatch a young child. The Daily Mail went as follows:
Kidnapper from the skies. The terrifying moment a golden eagle 'swooped down and snatched up a toddler' as he played in the park.
That same
link now has headlines that have changed depicting a different story thus pretending it was right all along - because the footage is a fake. So much for accuracy, as this
blog in the Guardian points out:
Shame on you, Guardian, for sharing fraudulent video with an unsuspecting public, thereby promoting misunderstanding of birds and fear of nature.
It goes onto detail the reasons why it's clearly a fraud - it obviously isn't a Golden Eagle and the baby looks suspiciously like a doll - before concluding the piece as follows:
All this evidence, taken together, means that this video is a golden
teaching moment. It also means that the Guardian blew it by posting this
video without including any analysis from a video expert as to whether
it's real or ... artificially manufactured. Further, the Guardian blew
it by not including comments from either an ornithologist or a birder as
to whether this video portrayal is even plausible.
This is irresponsible journalism. By posting this video, the Guardian is
actively promoting and reinforcing the public's misinformation and fear
of birds of prey, and further alienating the public from nature.
Publicly sharing this fraudulent video without any expert commentary
serves to undermine the education and conservation efforts of many
excellent organisations such as the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the British Trust for Ornithology.
Ouch. Good to see Leveson was such a master of his brief.
