In the film American Pie, the character Jim gets excited too soon during his romantic rendezvous with Nadia. The scene is accidentally broadcast to his entire school, ending as an embarrassing live shot. If only he more properly evaluated the situation and wasn’t in such a rush. Comparison complete.
A news director once told me it’s sometimes better to be first than right. Yes, you read that correctly. Maybe he had more influence than I imagined. And maybe some TV executives should create apology templates the night before a big day of breaking news.
After the U.S. Supreme Court released its ruling on healthcare, certain members of the media offered us yet another sequel to a bad script. Call this showing “American Eats Humble Pie.” Let’s go to some Tweets from others I read in my timeline to see how some of the confusion unfolded on Twitter.
7:08am: “BREAKING — Individual mandate struck down. More to come”
7:08am: “Breaking: @CNN reporting #SCOTUS has ruled that the individual mandate for health care is unconstitutional.”
7:09am: “Wait: AP and CNN just reported opposite outcomes.”
7:10am: “Not Twitter’s finest moment here. #scotus”
7:10am: “So does the mandate survive or is it struck down? Oh Twitter, your confusion is so much fun…”
7:11am: “Lots of tweets about #SCOTUS striking down mandate… yet @Scotusblog reporting that it is upheld.”
7:13am: “Conflicting reports from media on Supreme Ct. mandate. Tune in to KTAR for LIVE breaking news, analysis.”
7:13am: “Wait, you mean TV news reporters dont take the time to get something right, preferring first? wow! #scotus”
7:16am: “Chaos outside of #SCOTUS. Hearing several things waiting for my copy of the written opinion.”
7:21am: “***Correction*** The Supreme Court upholds Affordable Health Care Act”
7:31am: “CNN makes a disastrous Supreme Court screw-up”
7:38am: “Reaction to CNN’s erroneous Supreme Court healthcare ruling”
7:48am: “Drama at CNN. I would love to be a fly on Wolf Blizter’s beard. #SCOTUS”
8:03am: “Twitter reacts to #SCOTUS health-care ruling with confusion over conflicting early headlines, jokes.”
8:32am: “Who is having a worse day Republicans, Ann Curry or CNN?”
11:03am: “Update #2: CNN colleagues defend Kate Bolduan; say veteran producer misinformed her.”