Is OWH the New TMZ?

What do Miley Cyrus and Jim Esch have in common?  Well, keep reading to find out.

The Omaha World-Herald is in a tailspin. Circulation is declining, ad revenue has fallen off a cliff, and employees are being asked to take pay cuts. The World-Herald won’t report on the latter because it isn’t newsworthy.

If that isn’t enough, the quality of reporting has suffered immensely. Over the past month, there have been two rather interesting examples of this decline.

The first dealt with Jim Esch’s party change. Through a Facebook status update, Jim Esch announced his intention to switch his party affiliation. It’s definitely a newsworthy event, but the way in which the OWH wrote about it is quite interesting.

On August 31st, the OWH published a story entitled – Esch says he’s now an independent. Here are a few excerpts…

Esch announced last week on Facebook, a social netowrking Internet site, that he has switched his party affiliation from Democrat to independent.

As an aside, note the spelling of the word “netowrking”. I did not spell the word wrong. It is misspelled on the OWH website and at the time of this post, it is still misspelled. The spell checker must have been on furlough. Anyway, the story continues.

Esch, who has organized a nonpartisan advocacy group, could not immediately be reached for comment.

So, what’s the big deal?  At no point in the entire story does the OWH present any evidence that it has actually confirmed the accuracy of the Facebook status update.  In fact, the OWH does the exact opposite. In the line posted above, the OWH points out that it hasn’t confirmed the story. My motto has always been “if it’s on the internet, it must be true”.

And yesterday, a story on the World-Herald website caught my eye. Miley’s sick; is concert in doubt?

Here’s a line copied directly from the World-Herald’s website.

Cyrus’ Twitter page had this remark posted today: “Keep your fingers crossed Omaha. I am not feeling too good this morning…. Back to sleep. Night night.”

Actually, that’s not entirely accurate. Miley wrote “to good” instead of “too good” but I digress.  If I keep referring to Miley by her first name are readers going to start thinking I’m a fan?  Also, there’s got to be a way to use the phrase “party in the O-M-A” somewhere in the post.  Although, my readership may skew older and not get the reference.

When did newspapers become tabloids? Aren’t newspapers supposed to report the news? Miley’s sick; is concert in doubt? is something you’d see in People Magazine or Entertainment Tonight. Oh wait, this same story was in People.  When did celebrity speculation become news?

There’s no problem using Twitter, Facebook, or YouTwitFace to find news leads. But that’s not what’s going on. The OWH turned what they found on these sites into uncorroborated news stories. The tweet and status update became the story instead of being a news lead requiring further investigation. Are you confused? Let me explain.

In the case of Miley Cyrus, the OWH never actually spoke with anyone with direct knowledge of Miley’s condition. The OWH speculated on her condition.  They created a news story based on a tweet; it wasn’t based on any actual news reporting.  The OWH tried to reach Miley’s reps but didn’t.  Did that stop them from publishing a story based on pure speculation?  No, the tweet is on the internet, it must be true.  To the Omaha World-Herald, the tweet is the news event.  The OWH is quickly becoming a newspaper with the same journalistic standards as People Magazine and TMZ.

These examples also point out OWH’s struggle to stay relevant.

Sure, these may be small examples of shoddy journalism, but that’s what we’ve come to expect (and love) from the World-Herald.

If shoddy journalism isn’t enough, the OWH piles on with questionable story topics.  Who the heck decided that Senator Ben Nelson getting sunburnt was newsworthy?