If you’ve clicked on any articles about the victims of recent terror attacks, you might have seen this man’s photo. Following the deadly terrorist attack at Atatürk airport in Istanbul, Turkey, social media users shared his photo, claiming this man was among the 42 people killed. His photo was also shared online after the EgyptAir crash last month and, once again, he was believed to be a victim.
This is a horrible situation for the person pictured but it shows just how awful the “drop out of J-school” mindset has impacted our level of reporting. Journalists see a tweet with a photo of someone killed during a terrorist attack and without fact checking, they run the story, photo & all. Go to any popular YouTube video and you’ll see a comment from a millennial J-school dropout getting paid in page-views / Facebook shares asking,”I’m with XXXXX mind if we use your video on our site?” These leaches have no filter or journalistic standards. They just re-share content on and on without fact-checking.