Russia Invades Ukraine: This is the Mainstream Media’s Super Bowl. You’re about to see a lot of journalistic mistakes. Keep receipts.

A bunch of journalists (many of them literally not even near Ukraine) are going to put out BS to get clicks / the CHANCE to break a major development FIRST.

For an unethical journalist, reporting unconfirmed and / or sensationalist info is a practical decision driven by greed and advancement opportunities. Even if outlets issue corrections, it won’t matter. People read the news in the moment, making the entire industry rush stories (also an excellent example of First Mover Advantage). From a risk-reward standpoint, incumbent media companies have a high upside and limited downside to misreporting stories. Very little risk to profits, but relatively high upside if they nail it.

Why don’t media corrections ever matter?

No one reads follow-ups / corrections issued in the form of a tweet, story, or TikTok video. Have you seen NBC News’ twitter engagement? It more often than not gets fewer retweets and likes than Ron DeSantis’ Press Secretary Christina Pushaw.

8.8M followers for NBC News vs. 90K for Christina. NBC News’ social team is being dominated by a one woman show, but that’s a story for another time.

Any correction tweets from the mainstream media will be basic and likely delivered at a weird time (everyone loves Friday nights…). And then they’ll never mention it again.

As a result of these misplaced incentives, the media INDUSTRY is never held accountable and can hide behind “issuing a correction.”

In news, the original story (even if it is blatantly proven to be false or substantially biased) most often wins. As a result, you will see journalists race to the bottom with glee to report on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

This is the mainstream media’s Super Bowl. They love a war, so they’ll trip over themselves to “report” second by second.

This is a war that affects real people right now. I hope journalists will keep that in mind and be super careful, but my realist mind knows that’s a pipe dream.

You’re going to see a lot of conflicting information over the next week. Check your sources. Keep receipts.