TMZ Speed vs. CNN Credibility – Pick One

Et tu, Richard?

The hypocrisy I’m seeing around the Michael Jackson news story is laughable. But it’s not very original. We’ve heard this all before.

What’s the motive behind declaring a winner and loser for who broke the story? Does it change the story? Does it give TMZ exclusive rights to the story?

Yet Web 2.0 super nerds are seemingly on MSM death watch, cheering with every development that can be considered a nail in the coffin of the fourth estate. And these same people would step over their own family if a CNN, New York Times or even smaller, niche and trade publications came calling asking them to contribute.

”The TMZ Beats CNN Pile On” is not a story about old being beaten by new. It’s several issues twisted together. Trying to deal with them in one blog post is like trying to read the Kama Sutra while riding a Sit & Spin.

Speed vs. Credibility
If this is about speed vs. credibility, new media will usually win speed and mainstream media will usually win in credibility. But more importantly, if mainstream media sacrifices their credibility, they have nothing left.

Case in point…as the world mourned Michael Jackson and the Internet moaned under the weight of it all, a new Twitter avalanche began that asserted Jeff Goldblum had passed on.

Thankfully the “Earth Girls are Easy” star is still with us today. But what if, after getting their shorts handed to them by TMZ, CNN said “screw it, we’ll be first THIS time” and reported that Jeff Goldblum was dead? Game over. But the Twitterverse can say anything they want and sleep soundly. We let them. We are them.

CNN lives in a different world than TMZ and is held to different rules as a result. Newspapers can get sued if they retweet something deemed libelous in a court of law. Something tells me TMZ budgets for law suits.

More People or the Right People?
If this is about getting exposure in the best possible outlets, TMZ is a niche publication. You won’t see a TMZ reporter at Davos…unless we find out Amy Winehouse is speaking at the World Economic Forum. One thing new media has shown us is that it’s no longer a question of the most exposure possible. It’s the right exposure that will move the needles measuring our programs. Bottom line is that public relations needs to blend the benefits of new media and mainstream media to reach its goals.

And we can work to make that happen with the urgency of knowing that we’ll all die someday. But unlike MJ, MSM is not dead. Not yet.

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