5 Huge Media Screwups in April Alone

Culture

April has been a tough month for a lot of people in so many different ways. The U.S. news media is not being of any help at all, though. In the rush for being the first to break big news, they have foregone journalistic integrity. From laziness to arrogance, here are five ways the media has really failed the public this month:

1. CNN, Fox report suspect arrested in Boston Marathon bombing:

CNN, the Associated Press, Fox News, and others all claimed that a "dark-skinned male" suspect had been arrested in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing. CNN's Fran Townsend and her sources seemed to be the starting point for this false rumor masquerading as news. John King reported on the needless dark-skinned aspect, drawing a rebuke from CBS which argued that the suspect was actually white. NBC, to its credit, never jumped on the bandwagon and insisted that there had not been any arrest made. Jon Stewart recently gave CNN an appropriate skewering for its terrible journalism.

2. New York Post identifies two innocent men as the Boston bombers:

Not one to be left off of a bandwagon, the New York Post declared that these two guys are being sought by federal investigators for the attack. One of the two indicted by this witch hunt, a 17-year-old teenager, promptly went to the police to clear things up.

3. New York Post bats 0-2, inflating the Boston Marathon bombing death toll:

While claiming that a "Saudi national" had been taken into custody by the authorities, the New York Post also insisted that at least twelve people had died in the attack four times the actual number. The Post is a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., which also owns Fox News.

4. Media ignores Gosnell abortion mill, covers cruise ship toilets:

The trial of abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell is one of the most gut-wrenching and disgusting stories out there today. Prior to a conservative-led outcry earlier this month, the media was mostly ignoring it. By leveraging social media, grassroots were able to shame the news media into covering the terrible story that includes notes such as body parts clogging up clinic toilets. Compared to the unyielding coverage of stranded cruise ships, or even things such as CNN's in-depth look at clogged toilets on the Crown Princess, there is enough facepalm to go around.

5. Reuters kills George Soros:

Reuters prematurely published the obituary of liberal financial titan George Soros. The billionaire is still alive and kicking, and is no doubt happy to be in a position most men are unable to be in reading what people will say about him when he dies. The news agency, which retracted the obituary shortly after it was published, said that many blamed Soros for the financial collapse. Soros isn't the first to be preemptively killed off; Mark Twain famously declared, after reading his own obituary, that "the reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."

So, at least we can take comfort in the fact that screwed-up reporting isn't a new thing ... or, you know, scream in frustration and demand higher standards from our reporters.