Reflection on Social Media Case 3: Tom Petty’s “Death” and Death


Fans of Tom Petty received some devastating news on October 2, 2017 at 1:00 PM: He had died from cardiac arrest as reported by the Los Angeles Police Department and confirmed to CBS News. The tributes swept the internet. Fans were sad to lose a legend.
But wait, at 1:41 PM on October 2, 2017, just 41 minutes after CBS’s report, TMZ posted the following via Twitter: “UPDATE At this time, Tom’s still clinging to life. A report that LAPD confirmed the singer’s death is inaccurate.” It wasn’t long before the internet was abuzz with confusion. Was Tom Petty dead or not?
Tom Petty’s daughter, AnnaKim called out the Rolling Stones magazine, stating, “My dad is not dead yet but your f***ing magazine is.”
She had a right to be angry; she was trying to cope with the reality of a parent who was dying. She and her mother confirmed Tom Petty died later that day at 8:40 PM. Instead of being able to mourn their loss, they were bombarded by questions of whether their loved one was dead and when he died.
So what went wrong? How can a news channel such as CBS post something inaccurate? How could CBS, who, before this case study, was more credible than TMZ in my book, get something this important so wrong?
The answer comes from the pressure of news sources to be the first to report. Nobody wants to be reposting someone else’s news, so everyone is in a rush to get the breaking news out there to the public before anybody else. In this case, CBS somehow got inaccurate information (or possibly misconstrued the information given to them) from the LAPD and quickly posted it before they made sure the information was accurate.
And what are the consequences of getting the news out first, but then having to retract when it is found to be inaccurate? There is a loss of credibility.
The thing that gets me, is that I would have read the original CBS news release and felt like it was credible. It supposedly had confirmation from the Los Angeles Police Department that Tom Petty, in fact, had passed away.
So how do we make sure not to fall victim of fake news? I guess we double-check our sources. And sometimes, we rely on people closest to the situation, such as Tom Petty’s daughter, AnnaKim.
So, R.I.P. Tom Petty. You were pretty dang awesome. I am sorry that your last day on this earth is linked with confusion and missteps. Rock on.


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