Reuters practice bad journalism?

Seems so. Apperantly they have used Deanna Wrenn’s name to publish a some-what unsensitive (not to say offensive) story. Deanna, a journalist, had to go all the way as to publish the details in order to show she had nothing to do with the story. Here is a snap from her column, Dear Elizabeth: I Didn’t Do It, on the Wall Street Journal editorial page:

CHARLESTON, W.Va.–This is from a story that Reuters news service ran this week with my byline:

Jessica Lynch, the wounded Army private whose ordeal in Iraq was hyped into a media fiction of U.S. heroism, was set for an emotional homecoming on Tuesday. . . . Media critics say the TV cameras will not show the return of an injured soldier so much as a reality-TV drama co-produced by U.S. government propaganda and credulous reporters.”

Got problems with that?

I do, especially since I didn’t write it.

Here’s what I sent last week to Reuters, a British news agency that compiles news reports from all over the world:

ELIZABETH–In this small county seat with just 995 residents, the girl everyone calls Jessi is a true heroine–even if reports vary about Pfc. Jessica Lynch and her ordeal in Iraq.

“I think there’s a lot of false information about her story,” said Amber Spencer, a clerk at the town’s convenience store.

Palestine resident J.T. O’Rock was hanging an American flag and yellow ribbon on his storefront in Elizabeth in preparation for Lynch’s return.

Like many residents here, he considers Lynch a heroine, even if newspaper and TV reports say her story wasn’t the same one that originally attracted movie and book deals.

What I typed and filed for Reuters last week goes on in that vein. They asked me if they could use my byline, which I had typed at the beginning of the story I sent, and I said that would be no problem.

When I got to work Wednesday, e-mail messages were flooding my inbox calling me everything but Peter Arnett.

A colleague told me a fill-in host on the nationally syndicated Glenn Beck radio show had nothing but contempt for me.

I don’t blame him. Thanks to Reuters, he didn’t know any better.

I hope the people of Wirt County have been too busy to notice the Reuters story, the beginning of which takes a tone I never would have used.

Read the full column…

Now, I know this in an internal US affair (I’m not even that familiar with all the details of the original event, I just know in general about the rescue thing) - but since the media actually controls people’s opinion, we should be extra careful watching it.

If an agency such as Reuters shows this amount of bad practices (or even worse - bias), which is considered (at least around here) to be reliable, then something is really wrong in the process.

News agencies, both on-line and off-line, must double check everything they publish and whose responsible for each item. It’s totally irresponsible to publish false information, but it’s plain and simple amateurish to publish a story with a false byline! If that person is a journalist you might even damage his/hers future severely!

For example, you’re reading my blog here. Now I might say some stuff I can’t back up, and I mostly pointing to links, instead of doing a whole research myself. This is why these posts are on a personal blog and not on your local newspaper / news-site. But even here, you can at least be sure who wrote it.

Reuters, I’m disappointed. Greatly.