Two Things That Always Follow You

Your reputation and your standards, and Mike Wise got a hard lesson in that this week. As speculation swirls about Pittsburgh Steeler QB Ben Roethlisberger's suspension length, Wise sent out a Tweet saying he knew it was five weeks now, not the original six (interesting since the preseason game on Fox was reporting the possibility of it being cut to four). Washington Post ombudsman blog || Original note at National Sports Journalism Center.

Wise's message set off alarms across the league, and he came back to say that it was false -- made up of whole cloth -- and he was doing it just to prove a point about accountability in social media.

He's right. Amateurs aren't held to accountability standards, and they are often posting as PigBoy47.

Pros know better.

Lets keep the terms straight. When PigBoy47 does it, you could call it Tweeting.

When Mike Wise does it -- or anyone else who wishes to lay claim to a "journalist" label -- it is real-time reporting. No more, no less. Same rules of proof should apply there as in his home publication.

Whether Wise likes it or not, his paradigm doesn't shift with the account he's using to log into his readers.

One of two nut quotes:

Vita (the sports editor at the Post) sent a note to his staff reminding them of The Post’s rules on social media. They say that in anything transmitted via social media networks, like Twitter or Facebook, “we must protect our professional integrity.”

“We must be accurate in our reporting and transparent about our intentions,” the guidelines read.

The other one was written by the ombudsman, Andrew Alexander. It's your 140 takeaway:

But Wise wasn’t reporting. He was fabricating, which is the greatest sin in journalism.

What does that mean in this space? It goes double for the person formerly known as "the source." If an athletic administrator, a coach or an athlete sends out into they know is misleading, they get hit twice. First, you deceived. Second, you have no one to blame -- you did it to yourself.

In this, Wise gets the man-up credit for not blaming a source for bad information.

I've heard many a player (occasionally a coach) say it's not fair that they can't "joke around" with their Facebook or Twitter pages like other students or friends. I can have some empathy, but that was the trade off many of us faced when we signed on as public figures.