October 1, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Jumping the Gun
October 2, 2008 at 5:44 am
The newspapers want to be "First with the story". It really doesn't matter to them if they're accurate or not, just first.
Prime example #1. Two decades ago, a friend of mine was accused of rape. Made the papers, "Local Man, XXXX, 29 attacks woman". After being arrested, had his reputation destroyed, he's found to have not committed the crime. (In fact, he wasn't in the state at the time.)
Doesn't matter. The papers never did a story about him being cleared. That's not news.
Prime example #2. Similar event. Local teacher is accused of molesting 3 girls in his class. Teacher is suspended, newspapers run front page stories of the teacher and his "pets". After interrogating the teacher, the police don't get anywhere. Parents of girls are on TV threatening lawsuits. Police speak with students again. Come to find out, the girls were angry with teacher for getting a detention, they made up the story. Teacher reinstated. Girls suspended for TWO days. Now parents are suing the school for the suspensions claiming that it has traumatized the girls. Papers did mention the clearing of the teacher, WAY back on page 37. Doesn't matter, his career is in shambles. Last I heard, he's resigned from teaching, took up a menial job somewhere.
"Best Western Loses 8 Million Credit Card Numbers" is a much better headline than "Best Western Might have Lost 13 Credit Card Numbers".
I agree with the idea that is beneficial for society to receive the information regarding security breaches, etc. But I also see that the media doesn't fact check, nor do they followup on stories, unless it is sensational, salacious, or seductive. The plain information report and the admission of jumping the gun are not a priority.
Honor Super Omnia-
Jason Miller
October 2, 2008 at 6:17 am
Jason Miller makes some very good points. Allow me to pile on.
The college I attended years ago had a nationally ranked school of journalism. One evening, I attended a talk presented by a well known activist. The next day I read about the speaker in the student newspaper. I was shocked at how different the article was from what I had heard the previous night. The student reporter just had it all wrong. I don't think it was a matter of bias; just incompetence. We can forgive this (I guess) with student reporters, but I've had numerous experiences where I listened to a speaker on TV and the next day read about it and saw total distortion and mis-representation of what was said. It's a little scary sometimes.
On the other hand, I've seen lots of times when the reporters get it. I think Steve makes a good point that often facts and problems are better known than covered up. You just need to make sure you have a competent and honest journalist. Unfortunately, finding one does not seem to be as easy as you might think...
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“Politicians are like diapers. They both need changing regularly and for the same reason.”
October 2, 2008 at 6:46 am
Just a comment on the facts in your editorial. The subject matter in that SNL script was about the Census, as that was the year the government was conducting a Census. It really was quite funny in that context. 🙂
October 2, 2008 at 6:49 am
How did a newspaper know before Best Western that there was a breach? Or, did Best Western know about it and someone internal leaked it? In either case, they needed to be on top of it and report the story before it gets out. The company needs to control the reporting by giving the story to the media in a press conference.
The media is all about sensationalism. There used to be a division between serious journalism that would strive for honest and accurate reporting and the National Enquirers that would report sensational stories that were totally or partially fabricated. The news-consuming public used to have a sense of seriousness and gravity regarding the news. Now it's mostly about getting one's thrills vicariously through sensational journalism. Damn the facts, man, I want hot headlines, sound bites, and meaningless drivel! The idea that someone like Paris Hilton can be famous for her "love" life shows the depths to which journalism has fallen.
October 2, 2008 at 7:16 am
You're not reading your own Database Weekly roundup, Steve. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080924-does-ideology-trump-facts-studies-say-it-often-does.html from last week says that the damaging press will negatively impact people's perceptions of companies, whether retractions/corrections are printed or not. Same as the posts above about people's reputations being shattered.
But I understand your point, that there should be some accountability on both sides, sensational journalism and outright denial of problems alike.
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"stewsterl 80804 (10/16/2009)I guess when you stop and try to understand the solution provided you not only learn, but save yourself some headaches when you need to make any slight changes."
October 2, 2008 at 8:04 am
Some doofus in Houston who was "working as a consultant for a local hospital" left two laptops in his car in front of a Best Buy yesterday to go buy a power cable. When he came out the windows of his car had been smashed and the PCs were gone. They had medical information about patients in a local hospital in them.
That's all the info the news report gave. Personally, I wanted the doofus' name so I could be sure never to hire him. Leaving laptops in the car is dumb.
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Anye Mercy
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"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." -- Inigo Montoya in "Princess Bride"
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October 2, 2008 at 8:19 am
While on vacation, my sister in law got an urgent call from her daughter, the local paper described my brother in law (her husband) as being arrested in a major drug raid. Actually he had an outstanding traffic ticket, the newspaper reporter misread the police blotter.
Never trust what you read in the newspaper, especially a single article.
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-- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers --
October 2, 2008 at 8:21 am
Regarding the missing laptops, here is another angle. Suppose the data were credit card records for a retailer.
You might be one of the victims. The retailer might call you to tell you so. They never offer any proof of their identity but expect you to believe it. When you ask for more information (remember, THEY called YOU), you are grilled over security information that, in a case like identity theft, might have been changed, so you cannot correctly answer. On those grounds they refuse to give you information to help yourself, EVEN THOUGH THEY INITIATED THE CALL! I certainly do not consider that taking responsibility on the retailer's part. The interest is in spreading panic and looking good in the press because you informed people. Stopping short of actually helping them is dodging the bullet...and the responsibility.
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Buy the ticket, take the ride. -- Hunter S. Thompson
October 2, 2008 at 8:35 am
There will never be perfect security. NEVER.
As it is our information is vulnerable to the weakest, or unluckiest entity with which we deal, and there is no way to evaluate the risk of dealing with any particular vendor (they themselves probably don't know the risk).
We need to totally re-think the system, perhaps more like highway safety. While we try to reduce accidents, we accept they WILL happen, and there is much that can be done to mitigate the inevitable: seatbelts, airbags, emergency squads, insurance...
Identity issues need to be dealt with by a legal liability structure that is geared to quickly mitigating the damage (fast and effective revocation and reissue of compromised accounts, easy access to and fixing of our information, legal protection for credit ratings a fast way to push all changes back through the system etc.) Data leaks and theft WILL happen. Let's deal with that fact.
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-- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers --
October 2, 2008 at 8:50 am
There will always be issues and we need to respond to them, but how to we disclose the info?
Not sure you should know the guy's name from Best Buy. What if his boss told him to take those laptops somewhere? Might not be his fault, and I'd like to know the rest of the story.
Which is the problem. How do we get the "rest" of the story? Companies can't be trusted to tell it, and journalists might not be either. Don't have a solution.
And I do read the DBW, heck, I put them in there. I still see some people commenting they won't stay at a Best Western. BW needs to (loudly) sue the company. Or maybe newspapers should have to print corrections in the same place as the original story. That would be interesting.
Thanks for the SNL correction. I couldn't find the skit, and my memory is failing 🙁
October 2, 2008 at 8:53 am
Over the years, I have had personal knowledge of stories that appear in the newspapers. The newspapers do a terrible job of reporting the news.
Your assumption that reporting news with 'any' truth is better than no reporting is a bad compromise. If Best Western lost information, responsible newspapers would try to get the story correct. There are no responsible newspapers left.
Your assuming that the information lost by Best Western is of value. The use of credit card numbers and social secuity numbers should be replaced with your name and birthdate. This would eliminate the value of the information.
Robert Neal
October 2, 2008 at 8:56 am
Steve Jones - Editor (10/2/2008)
And I do read the DBW, heck, I put them in there. I still see some people commenting they won't stay at a Best Western. BW needs to (loudly) sue the company. Or maybe newspapers should have to print corrections in the same place as the original story. That would be interesting.
Interesting thought, to print in the same place, but IF we can trust the study, and it's not just hyped-up press itself, then it says that the participants were PRESENTED with the corrections, and still had much higher negative connotations regarding the entities falsely reported on.
We all know perception is reality, it's just hard to figure out how to fight that. Companies do so by denying everything, journalists fight it by finding the 'big story' whether it's right or not.
Maybe instead of the escrow being to the press, there is a third party (more government, I know) that administers these issues and releases findings after a timeframe in which companies should show action.
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"stewsterl 80804 (10/16/2009)I guess when you stop and try to understand the solution provided you not only learn, but save yourself some headaches when you need to make any slight changes."
October 2, 2008 at 9:41 am
jcrawf02 (10/2/2008)
Maybe instead of the escrow being to the press, there is a third party (more government, I know) that administers these issues and releases findings after a timeframe in which companies should show action.
But what do you do when the entity being reported on IS the government?
Honor Super Omnia-
Jason Miller
October 2, 2008 at 9:45 am
Jason Miller (10/2/2008)
jcrawf02 (10/2/2008)
Maybe instead of the escrow being to the press, there is a third party (more government, I know) that administers these issues and releases findings after a timeframe in which companies should show action.But what do you do when the entity being reported on IS the government?
Gov't reports on Gov't all the time. Check and balances.
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How best to post your question[/url]
How to post performance problems[/url]
Tally Table:What it is and how it replaces a loop[/url]
"stewsterl 80804 (10/16/2009)I guess when you stop and try to understand the solution provided you not only learn, but save yourself some headaches when you need to make any slight changes."
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