By: Shannon McCormick, Media Relations Coordinator

The premature reports this past weekend about the death of former Penn State coach Joe Paterno took me back to my TV news reporting days when the first hint of breaking news caused everyone to spring into action to report it FIRST.  Anyone who has ever worked in a newsroom understands the desire to break any development in a major story, especially one with a legendary coach who has recently been in the national spotlight. 

The reporting that happened (and didn’t happen) over the weekend in connection with Joe Paterno’s death raises troubling issues surrounding the “need to be first.”   The issues aren’t new.  The aggressive and competitive forces that power a successful newsroom - and we can assume played a role in the Paterno reporting - aren’t new.  However, the speed at which misinformation can spread has drastically changed with technology.  In a news climate where staffs are shrinking but media platforms (including social media) are expanding the pressure to be first is compounded.

The Paterno death reports started with a tweet by the editor of a student news organization that covers Penn State.   Then, this weekend, we saw how the story quickly gained momentum as respected news organizations  went with it despite the fact that information was unconfirmed. As journalists, we are taught to seek the truth, to consider the consequences of our words and actions on all the stakeholders in a situation, and to minimize harm.   Members of Paterno’s family spent their final hours with him reacting to inaccurate reports that he was already gone.

Great reporting isn’t just typing something clever under your byline, blasting out a tweet or being the first to have it on TV.  Real journalism is cultivating credible sources, asking questions -- even the ones that make you uncomfortable -- checking facts, re-checking those facts and asking someone you trust to check those facts. Then -- and only then -- do you distribute your information.  The public is entitled to know who your source is so that they can make their own judgement on the reliability of the facts as reported.  In the Paterno story, “facts” were attributed to non-specific people or outlets described in ways like “our sources.”  Wouldn’t it have been best to seek confirmation from and credit someone like a member of the Paterno family, a hospital spokesperson or perhaps Penn State University?

Now that I’ve made the transition from newsroom to media relations,  I am proud to have the opportunity to connect journalists with trusted professionals who can answer questions with authority.  I love being a part of the fact checking process and I am honored that world class organizations trust the team at MediaSource to represent them with integrity.  We communicate daily with amazing news directors, assignment editors, reporters and producers.  They do confirm the facts, conduct interviews with nationally respected experts and include attribution to their sources. 

The sequence of events around the Paterno story offers a platform to applaud those journalists who are committed to seeking and reporting the truth every day. And the unfortunate circumstances around the news reports during the final hours of Joe Paterno’s life are a reminder to journalists across all multimedia platforms that being first isn’t everything - at the end of the day, it all comes down to truth and integrity.

Shannon McCormick is the Media Relations Coordinator at MediaSource, a multimedia production and media relations company that works with many of the nation’s top news organizations to connect them with news from leading hospitals and healthcare organizations.