News is a daily occurrence that informs, educates, and informs others. Examples of news from everyday life include news reports of new crimes or other happening, breaking news reports, and the latest news on sports teams and individuals. In some cases, news is broadly reported and publicized by the media. Such news can include breaking news about a newscast on a specific station or network, or an earthquake or tornado in a certain area, etc. Other examples of news that is widely disseminated include political or celebrity news, such as that surrounding the current U.S. President or any celebrity involved in a serious accident, or news regarding a new movie being released, etc.
In the year twenty-three of July, a story about Gilgamesh, a mythological king, was disseminated through email to a large number of news recipients. According to the story, Gilgamesh was traveling with a small group of followers when he encountered a huge earthquake and a huge tsunami. Some accounts indicated that Gilgamesh had lost his life, but others indicated that he was saved by his wise friends Bucephalians. Gilgamesh supposedly asked them to send him food that they had caught. According to the tale, Bucephalians obliged, and Gilgamesh requested that they leave a bowl of rice and grain for him, so that he might have something to eat during his sojourn.
The email sent to many people bylines included the phrase “I GIVE YOU PEACE TODAY,” and many assumed that it was meant literally. This is because the incident was widely publicized around the world, so the meaning was widely understood. However, many people missed the point of the email and interpreted the meaning to mean “give me peace.” This misunderstanding caused many to misread the email as a solicitation for a charitable donation, which is illegal under federal law.
The second mistake that was made was that many assumed that the message was sent to all of the media at once, but it was actually sent to just two or three major media channels. The message did not mention the media by name, but it did reference “Contact: Connecticut Governor David A. Paterson.” The only state that the message was broadcasted to was Connecticut, so the rest of the country was not included. The mistake may seem petty, but the implications are much more serious. For example, the media outlet that the message was broadcasted to could have been forced out of business by a court order because of a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
The third mistake was antedating the news. Once the antedating occurred, all news of the event was newsworthy. This means that the original news story became less important and the subsequent newsworthy stories lost their value and were no longer worth covering. If it was not newsworthy, then it could have simply been ignored. This would have been a big mistake, especially since many news outlets live in the antedating era to this day.
The fourth mistake was in an attempt to make the event bigger, which led to less coverage and less impact. Instead of waiting to put more information out there, it was better to quickly say something was false and release a correction. This saved the company some money, but it also saved the company valuable time and allowed it to correct the issue as soon as possible. This means that it could have been a case of Cuomo being less than truthful about the date of the event. That is not a very good situation to be in, but instead of learning any lessons from this disaster, the media went into overdrive and made matters worse.