Getting it right

By: Kathryn Lisk

During class, we have often talked about how hard it can be to get a story right. Whether it's AP style, quoting sources, or simply understanding the topic, there are so many factors that can cause a journalist to get a story wrong.

In the presedential debates that took place Wednesday night, an article from the Washington Post was misleading about what Joe Biden's proposal for Iraq was and a blogger from Media Matters for America was quick to notice.

What was interesting was that Washington Post's Michael D. Shear didn't misquote anyone. He stated exactly what John McCain said in the debate. However, he didn't clarify that McCain's statement about Joe Biden's Iraq proposal was incorrect.

In the Media Matters blog post, the blogger states exactly what was said in Shear's article and then clarifies where Biden actually stands on the issue. This informed the blog's readers that both McCain and Shear had misinformed their audience regarding Biden's stance on Iraq.

I found this article interesting because it shows those learning about journalism just how hard it is to be accurate when writing a story, which is an important lesson to learn.

If any of us in Beginning Newswriting could learn this lesson from others' mistakes, we would surely save ourselves a headache as journalists in the future.