The Kicker
The Internets Win This Round
By Paul McLeary Mon 17 Dec 2007 12:12 PMRemember that “leaked” list of seventy-five suspected Major League Baseball juicers that came out on Thursday afternoon, a couple hours before the Mitchell Report on steroid use in the big leagues was officially released? And remember after it had been emailed to you and you emailed it to your friends, it turned out that almost every player on it was wrong? Well, via FishbowlNY, we learn that local New York NBC affiliate WNBC ran the unsourced email list as gospel truth Thursday afternoon.
Oops.
Deadspin, a sports blog that also ran the list Thursday morning, is apparently a little sharper than WNBC when it comes to knowing how the Internets—and chain emails purporting to be “true”—work, and was astute enough to throw some water of the emailed list, saying that “It could very likely be one of those Web urban legends that somehow got around, like when everyone thought Scott Baio was dead. It probably is, actually.” WNBC, sadly, didn’t have the foresight to run any such Baio-related disclaimer.
Score one for the Internet, zero for local TV news.
CJR
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Mon 17 Dec 2007 02:50 PMSure, WNBC apologized for running the fake list, but it's worth mention that a Fox affiliate released the names as well, and shrugged off criticism by noting that "the Fox brand allows us a little more latitude." Nice.