Breaking Raw and Unverified
Last night there were a flurry of diaries about the condition of Sen. Tim Johnson, Democrat of South Dakota. The first was Kos’ from an email by a Johnson staffer stating that the Senator had suffered a stroke, then one that hit the recommended list Senator Johnson Did NOT Have a Stroke, then all night long, stroke by stroke, diary after diary it was had a stroke, may have had a stroke, did not have a stroke.
There was volumes of speculation about the Senator’s medical condition.... even RubDMC interrupted his 583 day series Iraq War Grief Daily Witness to diary about strokes, brain aneurysms and the like.
There was equal speculation about what would happen to the balance of power in the Senate should the Senator succumb to whatever condition he was suffering from, and whether the Governor of South Dakota (a Republican) would appoint the next Senator to fill out Johnson’s next two years in office.
Hard to find in the plethora of diaries last night was any journalistic standard ... respect for the facts as we knew it, as the news was coming in... breaking, raw and unverified. The reality based community went on the fritz..... lost in a sea of speculation -- medical, political, and otherwise.
It’s a rare day on Daily Kos when I read in frustration and dismay so many conflicting reports of a news event as it is unfolding. I said to myself last night, I said "I’m not going to get any news here.... I’ll have to keep an eye on the MSM and wait for the real hard news in the morning.
Low and behold in today’s New York Times there is a report about Sen. Johnson’s condition. Harry Reid has been to visit and Sen. Thompson "looks good." The medical reporter for the NYT confirms:
Yes, Sen. Thompson had a stroke.
Dr. Lawrence K. Altman, a physician and medical reporter for The Times, explained Mr. Johnson’s medical condition for us this morning:
Dr. Altman writes:
Senator Johnson suffered an unusual form of a stroke, one due to bleeding into his brain from an abnormality present from birth, according to an interpretation of the statement issued by Admiral John Eisold, the attending physician of the United States Capitol.
Update on Senator Johnson's Condition
An astute reader of the New York Times suggested last Sunday a sound plan for dealing with news in the internet age, answering the question by Public Editor "Breaking News: Can Times Quality Be Preserved Online?" I suggest we embrace Mr. Mocenigo’s idea here as to how we handle breaking news when it is raw and unverified.
BREAKING RAW & UNVERIFIED:
News in the Internet Age
New York Times
"Breaking News: Can Times Quality Be Preserved Online?" (Nov. 19) appears to be a lot of hand-wringing over an easily solved problem.
Why doesn’t The Times set up a special section online, perhaps called "New York Times Online Raw" to present breaking news that has not yet been formalized for the print edition? Provide a link to these stories on the Times home page, with a disclaimer at the top of the "Raw" page explaining that the stories are breaking news and have not yet been thoroughly fact-checked and edited.
The stories themselves in this separate section would be written in a different manner from those meant for the print edition. There could be a subsection titled "What is Known," which would include everything that has been verified. A second subsection, entitled "What Is Surmised," would contain the information that The Times doesn’t want to get scooped on but at the same time has not been able to verify.
This approach could also serve as a model for other news organizations that are ever more blurring the distinction between fact and less-than-fact (to be generous) in their reporting.
John Mocenigo
Califon, N.J., Nov. 19, 2006
To recap, for the purposes of Daily Kos:
BREAKING RAW AND UNVERIFIED
• WHAT IS KNOWN: News that has been verified
• WHAT IS SURMISED: Information that Daily Kos diarists don't want to get scooped on, but at the same time have not been able to verify.
By the way, Daily Kos did NOT have a stroke. In my opinion we as a community did not dispatch outselves well last night. I’m hoping we who care about facts, truth, and journalism will take a lesson learned and apply the ideas of John Mocenigo to our community.
Further, I hope RubDMC resume his series Iraq War Grief Daily Witness, and as soon as he does that you will all go and give him a recommend.