Sign of the times

Accuracy be damned: With Twitter and Facebook, media feels free to reportincorrect information

In the rush to be first, the news media has been quick to report incorrectinformation posted on Twitter and Facebook.
Reputable news media sources reported all sorts of incorrect information aboutthe Connecticut shootings.
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There are many lessons to be learned from the horrific events that took place at the Connecticut massacre. Debate on gun control, dealing with people who suffer from mental health issues and how, we as society cope with what can only be described as unimaginable, are all being talked about around water coolers and dinner tables.

There’s another part to this tragedy that we can’t overlook; the way the media is covering breaking news stories.

In an effort to “get it first,”they threw out misinformation with reckless abandonment. The best of the worst was identifying the shooter as Ryan Lanza, 24, and tweeting his Facebook profile picture around cyberspace.

In a world where instant gratification is quickly becoming the norm, perhaps a little more homework and a little less rush to be first would be one lesson we could learn this horrible tragedy.

The news outlets had to correct themselves when it turned out that the shooter was 20-year-old Adam Lanza, his brother. (Ryan ended up posting “Fuck You CNN, it wasn’t me” on his Facebook wall in an attempt to help clear up the confusion)

There were also reports early on incorrectly reporting that Lanza's mother taught at the Newtown elementary school, which, again, proved to be flat out wrong, and massive confusion as to what, and how many, weapons had been used.

And, even before the dust had settled, there was a statement attributed to actor Morgan Freeman in the wake of the shooting that spread faster than nude photos of Kate Middleton that spoke of how the media is making these psychopaths into super heroes.

The problem? He did not write it, nor had no idea where it came from. It doesn’t matter though, because it’s still being shared on Facebook and tweeted at warp speed.

All of this is misinformation is leading us down a very slippery slope. Why is anyone going to pay attention, and much less believe anything, the media reports from the scene of breaking news, when so much of it turns out to be wrong?

It has become such common practice that most outlets don’t even bother to acknowledge their mistakes any more, but simply remove the page from their website in the hopes no one will remember and then let some PR flak try to explain it away.

Can you imagine what it must have felt like if you had a child in that school, or knew somebody who worked there and you were trying to find out what happened? In a world where instant gratification is quickly becoming the norm, perhaps a little more homework and a little less rush to be first would be one lesson we could learn this horrible tragedy.

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Thanks, Queen Bey

Pop icon Beyoncé donates $100,000 to University of Houston Law School

Photo by Erza Shaw Getty Images

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Pop megastar Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has donated $100,000 to the University of Houston Law Center Criminal Justice Clinic through her BeyGOOD Foundation. The gift will allow the clinic to hire fill-time faculty to head it, benefiting the students who study there.

“I am delighted that the BeyGOOD Foundation has made this very generous gift to the UH Law Center,” said Leonard Baynes, dean of the UH Law Center. “Not only will this funding help establish a full-time criminal justice clinic that provides pro bono legal services in our community, but it will also supercharge our already excellent criminal law and justice programming.”

The clinic is one of nine at UHLC. It helps students learn to navigate the criminal justice system, especially on behalf of clients that are underserved by skilled attorneys. People of color are affected disproportionately by a lack of good, ethical representation.

Beyoncé, the most decorated artist in Grammy history and easily the biggest musical star native to Houston, has a long history of advocating for criminal justice reform. She was a staunch supporter of the police reform following the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, asking law enforcement to “stop killing us” in a web post. In 2020, she penned an open letter to the Kentucky attorney general asking for justice in the death of Breonna Taylor.

Through her BeyGOOD Foundation, established in 2013, Beyoncé has focused mostly on expanding the prospects of Black-owned business and offering education opportunities to students. Forwarding the cause of legal representation in Texas while also helping out marginalized communities compliments her other philanthropic work.

“At UH Law, we envision a legal profession where ‘everyone has the opportunity to prosper,’ as BeyGOOD envisions, and we will achieve this vision by providing access to strong and effective legal representation in criminal proceedings,” Baynes said. “And together, through this gift, the BeyGOOD Foundation and UHLC will shepherd the next generation of criminal justice attorneys in the city of Houston, the state of Texas and the nation.”