I’m not sure exactly what set me off this evening. It could be all of the research I’ve been doing recently about college athletics because of the presentation and subsequent posts I’ve created pertaining to football recently. It may be the #BrianWilliamsMisremembers hashtag making its way around social web these past 24+ hours (with this interview with the pilot of the helicopter just hitting the Poynter website as I’m about to hit publish). It could be I had too much caffeine today (which is also entirely possible).
The result was a Twitter rant — about all of the ongoing ranting.
It’s fun to watch some of the folks most guilty of sharing and making errors casting stones. Actually, it’s kind of sad RE #journalism
— André Natta (@acnatta) February 5, 2015
The number of errors made every day continues to amaze me — esp. after my RTE stint. We just choose to be numb to them… — André Natta (@acnatta) February 5, 2015
We choose to be numb to errors until we’re given the excuse to be snarky with an avatar because it’s “cool”
— André Natta (@acnatta) February 5, 2015
If everyone did what we think they’re supposed to do, we wouldn’t really have anything to “report,” would we? It’d be too boring. — André Natta (@acnatta) February 5, 2015
If we actually wrote stories to make a difference.., wait, it seems to be too hard for some folks nowadays to do that. Easier to do snark.
— André Natta (@acnatta) February 5, 2015
I only wish we were this hard on the things that truly matter instead of the feigned outrage of the day. Then maybe we’d get something done. — André Natta (@acnatta) February 5, 2015
If nothing else, it’s been a reminder of why listening to the noise can be ridiculous and overblown </rant>
— André Natta (@acnatta) February 5, 2015
I only hope when we’re supposedly to really get upset that the same vigor shows itself among the digitally active. It’d be a shame to not have that level of passion when the stakes are actually significant (though what that may be differs from person to person; for me, it’s affordable education and accessibility). It’s not as though it doesn’t happen either; I just wish it did more often for things that truly mean something other than another excuse to attempt to show moral superiority.
We can hope — and I can step away from the laptop and go watch some basketball too. I think I might do that right now…
Cheers.
NOTE: When I say RTE up there, it’s from my brief stint contributing to Regret the Error at Poynter in 2013.
