The Season of Hoaxes

Balloon Boy. The Yes Men. The training exercise on the Potomac.

The AP’s David Bauder writes about how the speed of news reporting and social media has led to a situation where hoaxes are seemingly more and more likely to slip through:

The recent spate of hoaxes and premature stories exposes a dangerous fault line for journalists in the world of second-by-second news.

Each situation was unique. But they all diminished the credibility of news organizations at a time when the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press has reported that 63 percent of Americans believe news stories are often inaccurate — the worst report card it has ever seen.

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