In today's world, with the power of search engines, one has access to literally thousands of publications. Articles which may have once existed only in obscure magazines are now available to anyone, anywhere at the click of a mouse. As students of Internet Public Relations, we must understand and appreciate the power of this connectivity and advise our clients to always be aware that what is said is what is shared and can have long lasting effects be it positive or negative.
Case in point:
My passion is in community development. A quick search of the terms "rebuilding after natural disaster" led me to an article in an online publication called Live Science. The article was titled "Ike Underscores the Foolishness of Building on Barrier Islands".
Full Article Here
A particular quote by Bob Morton, a geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey's Center for Coastal and Watershed Studies in St. Petersburg, Fla. caught my attention. Not only is it a bold statement, but it is utterly false as we do not build or live on barrier islands in Mississippi.
"Every year there's reporting on the foolishness of building on barrier islands, but people are going to do it anyway," Morton told LiveScience. "We don't learn from the past. If you look at the barrier islands on the Mississippi coast in particular, after both Hurricane Camille in 1969, and Katrina, what did they do? They rebuilt. It's a perfect example of a coastal area that did get hit as bad as it can get, and they just go back and rebuild."
A new trend in online article publications is the feature which allows guests to register with the website and allows them to post comments on a particular article. This article went online September 12, 2008 and within a couple days already had twenty comments. A few comments addressed the false statement made by Bob Morton.
On September 16 I sent an email to Mr. Morton expressing my concern in regards to the statement in the article. Later that day he returned my email with this response:
From: rmorton
> Subject: Re: mississippi barrier islands
> Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2008 11:57:38 -0500
> To: Andrea Rogers
After a lengthy interview covering many topics and geographic areas,
reporters sometimes confuse different topics that were discussed as
they attempt to prepare quotes for an article. Having recently published a report summarizing the land loss and storm impacts on the MS-AL barrier islands and currently generating up-to-date maps of the MS barrier islands for the NPS, I am well aware of their ownership and development status. Reporters are on deadline and interviewees dont get to proof the text of an article before it goes out. I have received multiple emails about the quote originally put out by Live Science and apparently picked up by other news services.
End Email
So in less than one week this article was written, published online, and Dr. Morton had received "multiple emails" notifying him of his mistake. This is a prime example of how quickly things move on the web. It is also a valuable lesson in the art of a published interview. I would urge any future client to proof the text of any article in which they are quoted. What are your thoughts?
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4 comments:
I have an issue with Mr. Morton passing the buck and blaming the journalist for the error. The quote is quite clear, citing Camille and Katrina and building on MS's barrier islands. My suspicion is that he mispoke, not that he was misquoted. If he was misquoted, it's his responsiblity to bring that to the attention of the reporter and the publication and ask for a clarification. Whatever the cause, this mis-statement will live on the Web forever and most readers won't realize that our barrier islands are publicly owned and free of any private development.
Keep in mind, most journalists won't allow a source to preview an article prior to publication, in the interests of a free press and tight deadlines. Doing so is a firing offense at many publications.
Wow. Has there been a retraction or any correction to the article? I saw the post made by a reader, but did the website do anything? Apparently Mr. Morton did not or will not. That looks very bad and will certainly affect his and the site's credibility.
He has not, to my knowledge, posted any retraction. This was my original email to him urging him to do so.
Dear Mr. Morton,
I would first like to say that your education and experience in your field is impressive and deserves credit. However, I was suprised to read a quote from you in a Live Science article in which you called the Mississippi Gulf Coast foolish and implied that we build and rebuild on our barrier islands. As a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey and with your prior research in Mississippi and Louisiana, I find it hard to believe that you are unaware that your statement was false. The barrier islands off the coast of Mississippi are a part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore. They are primarily used for recreation and research.
If you misspoke, or were misquoted, I ask you to make a statement clearing the mistake. Many of us on the Ms. Coast worry that when someone of your expertise makes a false statement, it ruins your credibilty as an expert to the general public. This is especially important when your agency implores people to evacuate or build properly for coastal regions.
Sincerely,
Andrea Rogers
I'm shocked that he did not state what his intentions were to clear up the situation. He obviously doesn't seem very concerned about the whole thing. I would personally be quite upset, and have a plan in place to set the record straight. Why he didn't make you aware of his plan was a strange move! I agree with Kristie on this one, don't blame the reporter here, take some initiative and take action.
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