Update: The pastor has called it off, but the small Florida church with plans to burn Qurans on September 11th has raised a plethora of media ethics questions.
ABC News’ Chris Cuomo posted this refreshingly-honest tweet moments after news broke that the pastor canceled the event. I suspect that Cuomo is not alone with this criticism, and social media played a supporting role in a story that spread like wildfire around the world. Which begs the question, should the popularity of a story on Facebook and Twitter impact the news media’s decision on how prominently the story should be covered?
“Social media hasn’t changed those questions,” writes Sarah Lacy on TechCrunch. “It’s broadened them from ivory tower press to anyone with a Twitter feed or a blog. The impact of social media to bring about world peace has been over-stated, but the destructive impact hasn’t. Distribution has been splintered into a million little pieces and so to as the responsibility for how you wield your own sliver of power.”
Your thoughts?