This is something you’ll probably never hear again. Popular gadget blog Engadget reported the Apple is going to delay the iPhone’s release to October and the Leopard, Apple’s new Mac OS, will also be available January of next year instead of October 2007. Well, this is Engadget, you see, and their source is ironclad…
” Let us reiterate: this was an ACTUAL email distributed within Apple’s internal email system to Apple employees.
As it turns out, the internal memo Apple employees received was actually retracted by Apple shortly after it was sent out. (Also published after the break.) We received confirmation from Apple PR that this initial email sent out to Apple employees was incorrect, and they let us know that the iPhone and Leopard are both still on track, and should meet their expected launch timeframes.”
From this one post from a blog, without the benefit of a confirmation from Apple, investors panicked and started unloading Apple stocks resulting to a 2.2% drop in the APPL stock price. As it turns out, the email was not an official one but came from a practical joker who was able to hack into Apple’s corporate email. AAPL might have gone down but Engadget is sure to get a lot of traffic from this little boo-boo. I wonder how Engadget is going to make it up with Apple for this blunder. That’s the small picture question. The big picture question is: though bloggers have never claimed as a group to be writing journalism, people nevertheless read us as if we are journalists. Aren’t we at least a little bit responsible for what we publish online? Should blogs, especially very popular ones (you know who you are) adopt journalistic ethics? For example, should I start spwell cheking my entrys?
[via engadget]
May 17th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
which “journalistic ethic”?
the ‘repeat lies because they agree with my demented world view’ ethic of the partisan old media,
or the ‘printed facts so an engaged population can discern an opinion’ used by one or two organizations?
journalistic ethics is an oxymoron. Press releases qualify as news. Opinion pieses rank as front page ‘news’ stories, and fauxtography and faux-documents have been used to push opinions as news.
Now, applying true journalistic practices - dual or triple sourcing, validating information would be a must for any organization wanting to improve and / or maintain their integrity.
June 11th, 2007 at 8:40 am
Just as Endgadget is no Slate, the local advertiser is not the Washington Post.
A recent survey of Internet users found most lumped all online commentators (bloggers and journalists) together as “news sources.” As blogs such as Engadget, TechCrunch become more serious (with execs from traditional media) they need to be held to a higher standard than Joe Smith writing about his day.
Everyone who holds themselves out to be (or seeks the protection of being) a journalist should follow the most basic journalistic practices of confirming what is published and refraining from publishing what cannot be confirmed. This should be especially true when printing unverified tips as facts effects the stock market.