‘News Wars’ Article Was Guilty of What It Criticized
In Julie Pitta’s zeal to show that online news organizations favor being first over being factual (“News Wars,” Monday, Feb. 24), she overlooked some basic facts of her own.
The story said that C/Net News.Com reported “a merger between Netscape and its networking competitor Novell.” This is flatly wrong. We did write a story, based on reports by Bloomberg News and Forrester Research, on speculation about Novell’s takeover prospects.
At no point did the story report a merger, as is stated incorrectly in the second paragraph of her article. In fact, News.Com’s report states clearly that both Netscape and Novell denied any merger talks. One week later, we posted a second story, this one by Reuters, that also refuted any notion that merger talks had been held between the two companies. And at no point did we say our story was a “scoop,” as The Times’ story reported.
In an interview with Ms. Pitta on the subject of the competition among online news organizations, I emphasized that while our medium allows us to be fast, and often first, it is certainly not our guiding principle. And when we are on the trail of a scoop or an exclusive, we are scrupulous about verifying our facts. She chose not to include my comments in her story.
C/Net’s News.Com is one of the premier news organizations on the Internet. Our reporters and editors have over 125 years of collective experience as journalists, having worked at a number of national technology publications and daily newspapers. We adhere to the same standards that are upheld by the mainstream media.
True, we are breaking new ground in this new medium, but never at the cost of compromising our professional credibility. It is our experience and integrity that has built this organization and won us prestigious awards.
We were looking forward to Ms. Pitta’s article, as we felt that it would raise some interesting ethical and practical issues that all news media must face with the rise of the Internet. Needless to say, we were disappointed not just in the article but also in the lost opportunity for a well-reasoned, thought-provoking analysis.
For the L.A. Times to cast aspersions on our reputation without citing concrete facts is not only unwarranted but irresponsible and mean-spirited.
Jai Singh
Editor, C/Net News.Com
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Editor’s note: Mr. Singh is correct in stating that The Times story incorrectly characterized the C/Net story as reporting a merger, rather than speculation about a possible takeover of Novell by Netscape or others.
