![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/eEFw7K6.jpg?resize=573%2C584\")
<\/p>\nIf you looked at Star News’ Facebook page this weekend, you’d have thought that they were putting on a Confederate Flag rally at Danville’s museum. They had nothing to do with the rally, but a bad decision to copy and paste an email gave people the wrong impression.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This came in from our SouthsideCentral tip line…<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Well, then.<\/p>\n
The first thing that I know, this is not the work of Mark Childrey. He doesn’t copy and paste emails and press releases verbatim unless he gives direct credit to the source. He’s immune to this RottenReporting incident. And “Reporting” is the key word.<\/p>\n
If you don’t read what you’re copying, you run into situations like this. When you say “Come out and celebrate our Confederate history and heritage” and invite people to “bring your family, your friends, lawn chairs and your FLAGS for this exciting event”, you’re making it sound like you and your organization is promoting the event as a sponsor.<\/p>\n
Mixing news and opinion is a delicate balance. You’ve got to have a way for your viewers\/readers to know the difference. Mark Childrey is the perfect example of how to do it right on TV. During his news segments, it’s clearly denoted with a NewsCentral bumper and “news” logos plastered on the screen. (NewsCentral? Where did they get that branding idea from? Heh.) When Mark switches gears for his talk show, that segment is started with a “Star Talk” bumper and the “talk” logo is well seen to the viewers. Here on SouthsideCentral, I’ve got two category flags that I activate… NewsCentral (hey, that sounds familiar!) and OpinionCentral. When you see those categories on an article, you know what you’re getting. Although the difference between news and opinion writing should be clear to the readers, I want to make sure I do my best in getting the difference clear. Somebody at Star News wised up within six hours and after a bunch of complaints and deleted the bad posting, but it was a shame that whoever cut and pasted it didn’t see it in the first place.<\/p>\n
If you have to copy and paste a press release verbatim, you should always cite your source for reference. You should always carefully read material like this to make sure that you’re not seeming to endorse a viewpoint that’s not supported by you and your corporate management.<\/p>\n
Whoever posted this on Star News’ Facebook page didn’t do any of those things. That’s RottenReporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If you looked at Star News’ Facebook page this weekend, you’d have thought that they were putting on a Confederate Flag rally at Danville’s museum. They had nothing to do with the rally, but a bad decision to copy and paste an email gave people the wrong impression.<\/p>\n
[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rottenreporting","odd"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pwqFk-3wm","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10992,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2014\/11\/05\/rottenreporting-how-to-create-controversy\/","url_meta":{"origin":13538,"position":0},"title":"RottenReporting: How To Create Controversy","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"November 5, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Danville's Confederate Flag's controversy is over. WSET's Tola Adamson should be ashamed for trying to create more. Let's get started with the \"story\". Pittsylvania County Man Defends \"Go Back to Africa...\" Statement I know Ed Clark. I'm not defending him nor am I defending his statement. He said it and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "RottenReporting"","block_context":{"text":"RottenReporting","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/featurescentral\/rottenreporting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"sclogo","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/sclogo.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11919,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2015\/02\/05\/rottenreporting-because-i-said-so\/","url_meta":{"origin":13538,"position":1},"title":"RottenReporting: Because I Said So!","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"February 5, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The Sonic Drive-In in Reidsville has closed. Let's take a look at the local TV coverage and find some RottenReporting. The story about the closing from Star News' Facebook page. In his report, Matt Smith says that the Eden Sonic closed because of a fire. He was quickly rebutted by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "RottenReporting"","block_context":{"text":"RottenReporting","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/featurescentral\/rottenreporting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/18mdmwM.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12244,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2015\/03\/19\/rottenreporting-at-least-they-got-halifax-right\/","url_meta":{"origin":13538,"position":2},"title":"RottenReporting: At Least They Got Halifax Right!","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"March 19, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Hee hee. Just a quick one for this edition of RottenReporting. WSET's reporters may know Southside VA (well sorta once they stay in Southside for more than six months), but their morning news producer in Lynchburg who updates their website is quite clueless. So there was a bad fire on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "RottenReporting"","block_context":{"text":"RottenReporting","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/featurescentral\/rottenreporting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/h6MoOGn.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/h6MoOGn.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/h6MoOGn.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14786,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2015\/12\/20\/rottenreporting-the-scanner-in-the-manger\/","url_meta":{"origin":13538,"position":3},"title":"RottenReporting: The Scanner in The Manger","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"December 20, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"This isn't really RottenReporting because the reporting was the usual excellent John Crane writing, but RottenHeadlineWriting takes up too much space and sounds stupid. So late last night, I decide to take a look at the Register & Bee's website to see what their Sunday feature story is. I immediately\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "RottenReporting"","block_context":{"text":"RottenReporting","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/featurescentral\/rottenreporting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/0HUW17e.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/0HUW17e.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/0HUW17e.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11668,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2014\/12\/29\/rottenreporting-machine-machines\/","url_meta":{"origin":13538,"position":4},"title":"RottenReporting: Machine Machines","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"December 29, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The Department of Redundancy Department is on Line 2. Most people have glaring English mistakes that just grate on their nerves. For some people it's your\/you're or to\/too\/two. Here's mine. Retiring CEO saw bank through \u2018major\u2019 success, growth (Register & Bee article, paywall may apply unless you break through) Presented\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "RottenReporting"","block_context":{"text":"RottenReporting","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/featurescentral\/rottenreporting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/Ek7wmNn.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/Ek7wmNn.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/Ek7wmNn.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13043,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2015\/06\/16\/rottenreporting-the-10000000-mistake\/","url_meta":{"origin":13538,"position":5},"title":"UPDATED: RottenReporting: The $10,000,000 Mistake","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"June 16, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"UPDATE: The Register & Bee corrected the article within two hours of this article being published. Behold the power of SouthsideCentral. I did my best to avoid writing this edition of RottenReporting, but the Register & Bee wouldn't modify their story. Register & Bee reporter Vicky Cruz watched drones fly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "RottenReporting"","block_context":{"text":"RottenReporting","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/featurescentral\/rottenreporting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"sclogo","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/sclogo.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13538"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13539,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13538\/revisions\/13539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}