The best and worst media errors and corrections in 2013 (Benghazi! Benghazi! Benghazi!)
by Craig Silverman
Published Dec. 18, 2013 7:30 am
Updated Jan. 2, 2014 2:38 pm
Error of the Year: ’60 Minutes’ Benghazi report
As is often the case with Error of the Year, the award is given partly because of the mistake itself, and partly because of the mistake’s fallout.
In late October “60 Minutes” aired a report that called into question the official version of what happened when the U.S. diplomatic compound was attacked in Benghazi, Libya. At the core of the story was a source, Dylan Davies, who worked as a security contractor for the State Department. Davies had a book coming out that purported to share new facts about what happened that night, and what he did.
Problem one: he lied to the show about what he did and saw, thereby making a core piece of evidence in the “60 Minutes” counter-narrative false and undercutting the entire segment.
Problem two: it only took days for other news outlets, such as The Washington Post and The New York Times, to reveal significant flaws with the story, and with Davies. The Times in particular received details from an important FBI interview with Davies that CBS News somehow never managed to get or check prior to airing the story.
How did the most respected TV news magazine get duped? And why didn’t it do the basic work of verifying its source and what he told them?
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more: http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/regret-the-error/233613/the-best-and-worst-media-errors-and-corrections-in-2013/
OK, this is a bit old, but I heard the author in a radio interview, and thought it was worth sharing.
And if you need to fill some time, try reading down to the year's notable corrections, many of which are quite humorous.