CARLTON FLETCHER: In the land of the ‘Facebook journalist’

A man hears what he wants to hear and he disregards the rest.

— Simon & Garfunkel

I came across the term in a post in which someone was blasting me for something I did not do — we’ll get back to that — but it really caught my attention: “Facebook journalist.”

If ever the word oxymoron was appropriate … bingo.

This person, whose name is not important … this is Facebook, after all, where names and profiles are created on a whim, the better to stay anonymous … said that I and other, now I guess irrelevant, media had been “scooped” by Facebook journalists, rendering me, and said other media, obsolete.

OK.

If I was supposed to be devastated by this news, well, let’s just say I’m far from it. See, I deal in reality, not some phony world where you get to kind of make things up as you go along. And the reality of the modern times is that “Facebook journalists” have the capacity to “scoop” legitimate news media all day long and twice on Sunday. When you’re not bound by any moral or ethical code, you can “report” stories willy-nilly, pretty much say anything you’d like without being held responsible.

Sorry, but someone who posts hundreds of “news” items with an accuracy rate of 20% … 30% … 50% … hell, 75%, essentially throwing stuff at the wall to see what will stick, is not a journalist. Not by any standard I’ve ever seen.

Real journalists fail often — I use myself as a prime example — but we are bound by professional code not to print or broadcast a news item without first having vetted sources. Unfortunately, because of the fear of being “scooped” by all those “Facebook journalists,” some media representatives — note, I did not say journalists — feel compelled to publish stories with incomplete or even inaccurate information in an effort to keep up with their supposed counterparts on Facebook.

You wonder why major newspapers … The Washington Post, New York Times … TV networks … ABC, CNN, Fox News … are constantly reporting on each others’ coverage blunders? The answer lies with all those “Facebook journalists” they feel they must compete with. Nixon may very well have gotten away with Watergate if Facebook were available in the late ’60s. News media would have been so busy reporting inaccurate information, they’d have spent their news space and air time covering each other faux pas, forgetting the real issue.

Woodward and Burnstein? They’d have been dispatched to cover cat shows for their slow methodology.

So, no, neither I nor any of my colleagues in legitimate media will ever be able to “compete” with “Facebook journalists” in reporting accurate and factual news. I may be called to the carpet for saying so, but that’s not something I’m interested in trying. Y’all go ahead and report “all the news,” and when a lot of it turns out to be bullsh–, you don’t have to worry. Just move on to the next big story. There’s no competition here.

And about my supposed “dis” of Bo Dorough’s campaign because I said some of the people who supported him posted inaccurate information on Facebook, nothing could be farther from the truth. I have always had a great deal of respect and a healthy professional as well as personal relationship with Bo. He and I talked about his possible candidacy long before he committed to the mayor’s race, and I held off on making any kind of announcement until he was ready out of my respect for him.

I also note — and have written as much in these pages — that Bo put together as well a crafted plan as anyone I’ve ever seen to address what he sees as the primary concerns in this community. He took that message to the people, ran a brilliant campaign in which he looked at his weaknesses from the general election and addressed them in the runoff and won a surprising — but well-earned — victory.

When people like Demetrius Young — and good luck there, Ward VI — call me out for “not liking the people who are elected,” that’s a prime example of someone saying things about which they know absolutely nothing. I had no dog in this hunt and wanted only for voters to do what is best for the community. If that includes electing Chad Warbington, Bo Dorough and even Demetrius Young, I’m all for it.

But maybe that’s too much for a “Facebook journalist” to comprehend.