Students walk past the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house on the University of Virginia campus on Dec. 6 in Charlottesville, Va. (Jay Paul, Getty Images)
Re: “Rolling Stone’s failure to fact-check,” Dec. 6 editorial.
I am not surprised Rolling Stone made mistakes with its story about a gang rape at a frat party at the University of Virginia. In the rush to put out a juicy story, perhaps in part to compete in this age of the Internet, basic journalism, involving fact-checking, has eroded. Bloggers seem intent on posting something, or even anything, to accelerate page clicks, which generate advertising dollars.
So here’s a prediction: In this era of “citizen journalists,” where everybody becomes a reporter without proper training or peer review, the day will come when one of them faces a lawsuit for libel. They also won’t have a big-money corporate media attorney to defend them. Yeah, good luck with that.
Howard Amonick, Aurora
This letter was published in the Dec. 10 edition.
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