Accuracy, accuracy, accuracy

"Never assume. Never, ever assume," Robbie Morganfield told us yesterday. That’s the message I took away from the day's activities.

The reason for his words is simple: Accuracy. If reporters assume that a common name such as Smith is spelled "Smith," it could turn out to be "Smithe," which would be inaccurate. And journalists have got to get "the facts straight," he said.

Just think about it. If a journalist reports that "John Smith," 40, of Oroville, Calif., was found guilty of some crime, and it turns out that it was actually John Smithe, 40, of Oroville, Calif., who was found guilty, the wrong person would be associated with the crime. And that impugns the misidentified person and the paper’s credibility. Journalists are supposed to inform the public. And they are supposed to inform the public accurately. Misspelling a name might seem like a small mistake, but mistakes damage newspapers’ reputations. How is the public supposed to trust what a newspaper reports if that paper regularly messes up? So it’s important that reporters never assume anything. Assumptions can lead to fact errors, and reporters are supposed to report the truth.

-- Olga Munoz, California State University-Chico, The Salt Lake (Utah) Tribune