OT: Jacobi fired by CBS for Paterno Pre-bituary

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January 27th, 2012 at 2:44 PM
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BiSB
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OT: Jacobi fired by CBS for Paterno Pre-bituary

CBS Sports writer and former BHGP blogger Adam Jacobi has been fired by CBS for incorrectly reporting Joe Paterno's death. Not terribly surprising, even to him:

Adam Jacobi
 
I had an awesome 17 months with CBSSports.com. I'm sorry to everyone, most importantly the Paterno family, for how it ended.
 

 

Adam Jacobi

In the end, CBS had to let me go for the Paterno story going out the way it did, and I understand completely. Thanks, everyone, for reading.
5 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply
 
 

They no longer call me Bisbiño

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January 27th, 2012 at 2:46 PM | Understandable (Score:4 Normal)
AAB
Joined: 01/14/2009
MGoPoints: 7194

but that sucks.  

There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter.

January 27th, 2012 at 5:52 PM | really? (Score:5 Funny)
umchicago
Joined: 02/05/2009
MGoPoints: 3531

what about all the people who have reported Elvis' death?

January 27th, 2012 at 2:54 PM | Don't do the crime, (Score:1 Normal)
SpreadGuru
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Joined: 10/17/2008
MGoPoints: 1106

if you can't do the time! Oh wait, that's for Sandusky.

"Forty-two Big Ten Championships!"

January 27th, 2012 at 2:55 PM | That (Score:5 Normal)
mgobluebraelow
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Joined: 08/20/2010
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Seemed a bit forced...

January 27th, 2012 at 5:24 PM | Well... (Score:2 Normal)
Tater
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MGoPoints: 10358

Of course it's "forced."  If you want to get hired somewhere else, you have to say the right things on the way out the door.  Someone will pick him up.

 

 

 

January 27th, 2012 at 2:56 PM | On the plus side, hopefully (Score:2)
enlightenedbum
Joined: 06/06/2009
MGoPoints: 1864

On the plus side, hopefully he'll bring his own inspired brand of lunacy back to BHGP?

January 27th, 2012 at 2:59 PM | This is not... (Score:2 Normal)
VAWolverine
Joined: 11/06/2008
MGoPoints: 1783

the first time this has happened with a major news organization jumping the gun on someones passing. I remember when the late Frank Reynolds from ABC announced former press secretary James Brady's death the day of President Reagan's assassination attempt. Reynolds bellowed on air "we are paid to get the story right!".

I believe NBC  jumped the gun on Joe DiMaggio's death. It has been said that Joltin Joe was lucid enough the have watched that report.

The media also camped outside Jackie Onassis' apartment awaiting her end with some premature reports coming there as well.

I just wish the media- all media- would let an official announcement come out first on the death of a famous individual. The dying person's famuly is at least due that courtesy.

 

January 27th, 2012 at 3:20 PM | Also, *very recently* many (Score:3 Normal)
Coastal Elite
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Also, *very recently* many news outlets mistakenly reported the "assassination" of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords last January, and then had to retract when it turned out that she was still alive (and recovering courageously).

January 27th, 2012 at 3:36 PM | Bloomberg (Score:2)
ssuarez
Joined: 11/03/2008
MGoPoints: 223

Released an obit for Steve Jobs about 4 years ago by accident. 

January 27th, 2012 at 2:58 PM | #HireAdamJacobi (Score:4 Normal)
G-Man
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#HireAdamJacobi

January 27th, 2012 at 3:28 PM | No offense (Score:5 Normal)
AAB
Joined: 01/14/2009
MGoPoints: 7194

but you're kind of a tool.  

Adam has been an outsanding blogger for years.  He fucked up pretty bad here, but if Mitch Albom is still employed and winning awards after being outed as a fabulist, I see no reason why Jacobi should be forever barred from journalism for actually making a mistake.  

There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter.

January 27th, 2012 at 3:40 PM | Yes (Score:5 Normal)
AAB
Joined: 01/14/2009
MGoPoints: 7194

I am saying that fabricating an encounter that never actually took place is a far more serious breach of journalistic ethics than improperly sourcing a major story.  I didn't think that was particularly controversial.

There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter.

January 27th, 2012 at 3:52 PM | "Reprehensible"? (Score:5 Normal)
AAB
Joined: 01/14/2009
MGoPoints: 7194

He relied on a report from a Penn State site.  That report was wrong and Jacobi should not have run with it until he had additional sources.  Firing him was totally understandable and probably appropriate.  Crappy sourcing is also a mistake that happens all the time, and I would wager lots of money that it is not an automatic career-ender.  Nor should it be, because it's an indication of a correctable error (sloppiness) rather than some kind of ethical failing.

Mitch Albom made up shit that never happened because he's a lazy piece of crap who is too busy trying to squeeze pennies out of old people.  He recently won the Red Smith award.  

There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter.

January 27th, 2012 at 4:30 PM | That's...a pretty huge strawman (Score:5 Normal)
AAB
Joined: 01/14/2009
MGoPoints: 7194

I have a policy of not buying any breaking story wholesale until it has been confirmed by multiple outlets.  

That aside, the issue I thought we were discussing was "should this incident keep Adam Jacobi from ever being employed in journalism again?"  Aside from my Mitch Albom example, I can't help but notice that Kirk Herbstreit is still employed despite doing the exact same thing with the Les Miles to Michigan story (as far as I know, he wasn't even suspended).  

Jacobi is a good blogger/journalist/writer/whatever, and has done a ton of good work, both at at BHGP and CBS Sports, for several years.  To say that he's forever barred because he rushed a story out the door without nailing down the facts (which, again, is something that happens quite frequently), seems like an absurd instance of selective punishment.

There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter.

January 27th, 2012 at 4:38 PM | And the dirty secret about (Score:2)
jmblue
Joined: 11/07/2008
MGoPoints: 28961

And the dirty secret about celebrity obituaries is that news outlets usually write them well in advance of the person's death, especially when the person is old. 

Also, don't big news companies like CBS employ fact-checkers?  Is Jacobi the only person losing his job over this?

January 27th, 2012 at 4:47 PM | Fact Checkers (Score:1)
theyellowdart
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 This isn't really a fact-checking type of situation.  When you have a breaking story the company usually takes the reporters word and sources on it.  It's typically not a situation that can even be fact checked.

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

January 27th, 2012 at 4:50 PM | How small does it go? (Score:2)
Hokemania
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How small does it go?

Whatcha gonna do, little brother?

January 27th, 2012 at 5:33 PM | That's what she said. (Score:2 Normal)
M-Wolverine
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That's what she said.

"I love him, he's a great coach, he's a great mentor, he's a great friend. He's every single thing you want a college coach to be, and he does it flawlessly." -David Molk

January 28th, 2012 at 2:41 AM | We are entering a dimension of mind. (Score:1)
BlueDragon
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A dimension of sight, of thought. We are entering...The Thin Zone.

Abort, Retry, Fail?

January 27th, 2012 at 4:04 PM | Good thing you've never made (Score:4 Normal)
MGoAero
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Good thing you've never made a mistake at your job.

January 27th, 2012 at 11:53 PM | Yeah, I know (Score:1)
mnb zach
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fabricating an important detail of a story days ahead of time is way worse than being the second in line in misreporting a piece of news that spiraled horribly out of control after a hoax.  Wait, that's not what you meant.

Not saying Jacobi didn't screw up --- you've got to get confirmation for these things --- but what Mitch Albom did was an outright lie, not a stupid mistake.

Jacobi is good people.  He deserves --- and will get --- another shot.

Site manager/Editor: Maize n Brew

Sporadic Tweeter: @zach_travis

January 27th, 2012 at 4:30 PM | Remove "kind of" and your'e (Score:2 Normal)
TimH
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MGoPoints: 296

Remove "kind of" and your'e getting there.

January 27th, 2012 at 3:03 PM | Too bad that it happened, but (Score:2)
Brhino
Joined: 09/08/2009
MGoPoints: 1367

Too bad that it happened, but it's sort of nice to see that CBS has the stones to level a punishment for a failure of journalistic integrity.  Can you imagine ESPN doing this?  Didn't think so.

January 28th, 2012 at 2:43 AM | Well (Score:1)
BlueDragon
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Joined: 11/14/2010
MGoPoints: 16711

Good thing I don't pay for cable and only watch live games, so ha ha, suckers! Put on all the Around the Horn and Rome is Burning shows you like. I'll never tune in. Never!

Abort, Retry, Fail?

January 27th, 2012 at 3:04 PM | posted from iPhone (Score:5 Normal)
ReadYourGuard
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How does firing Jacobi changed what happened? Does CBS feel exonerated? And what about his bosses who signed off on the story? Did he get fired?



I have no dog in this fight. I've never read Jacobi and I don't visit cbssports.com. I just think firing someone for this seems wrong.

"the Spirit of Michigan...is based on a deathless loyalty to Michigan and all her ways....and a conviction that nowhere is there a better university, in any way, than this Michigan of ours" - Fielding Yost
January 27th, 2012 at 3:25 PM | um, correct me if i'm (Score:2)
andrewG
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Joined: 10/20/2010
MGoPoints: 970

um, correct me if i'm wrong... but nothing can change what happened. unless i missed the unveiling of the time machine. best you can do is punish those responsible to deter it from happening again in the future.

as for his boss(es), certainly some responsibility rests there, but if the conversation before they ran it went like this "it's your ass on the line if you're wrong" i could understand a reprimand instead of getting canned.

January 27th, 2012 at 5:16 PM | Two things: 1) actions / consequences and 2) future prevention (Score:4 Normal)
robpollard
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MGoPoints: 597

Of course firing him doesn't change what happened.  But I think, if I'm hired by a media/news organization, it is a reasonable expectation that my work on the job have consequences.  If I do a great job (e.g., broke a legit story on a scandal), I'm sure they would take that work (which after all, is obviously in the past) and perhaps give me a bonus or better job title or something.  On the flip, if I commit about as big an error as one can in sports news, it's reasonable to expect being fired - his poor work hurt not just him, but his employer's reputation.

Second, don't think some future cbssports.com writer won't think twice if he finds himself in a similar situation where he has a hot tip. He'll remember that Jacobi lost his job, and perhaps that cbs writer will do some extra due diligence before going with the story (which ultimately will make both him and his employer better off).

I don't have anything against Jacobi and hopefully he can find work elsewhere.  It just shouldn't (and won't) be at CBS.

It only ends once. Anything that happens before that, is just progress.

January 27th, 2012 at 3:09 PM | Smart for tweeting this way.  (Score:2 Normal)
sheepdog
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Joined: 06/15/2011
MGoPoints: 804

Smart for tweeting this way.  Not burning bridges and showing respect will be helpful in his future opportunities.  (In contract to a bitter pissed off attitude)

January 27th, 2012 at 3:22 PM | I find his accountability very refreshing these days. (Score:2)
ShruteBeetFarms
Joined: 09/25/2010
MGoPoints: 1527

I hope he can land another job soon.

"I'm not a vegetarian b/c I love animals. I'm a vegetarian b/c I hate plants"

January 27th, 2012 at 3:46 PM | Sooooo.... (Score:2)
Hardware Sushi
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MGoPoints: 3481

Sooooo...can someone here for the life of me explain the interest in being the first to report that a famous person is dead?

I get the idea of breaking a story - but breaking someone's death isn't some grand piece of investigatory journalism like Bernstein and Woodward breaking Watergate - everybody knows when someone famous dies.

It's great to remember what individuals contributed to society over their lifetime and celebrate their triumphs, but I don't understand how being 15 minutes (or 12 hours, or whatever) early is worth it.

Maybe this post should've gone in Brian's front page thread. I just don't get the infatuation with announcing death.

Intensity is a lot of guys that run fast.

January 27th, 2012 at 3:53 PM | How refreshing . . . (Score:2)
jackrobert
Joined: 07/09/2009
MGoPoints: 84

to have someone connected with the Penn State story express appropriate remorse.

January 27th, 2012 at 3:55 PM | Black Heart, Gold Frowny (Score:5 Normal)
His Dudeness
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Black Heart, Gold Frowny Faces : (

or uh, Duder, or El Duderino if you're not into the whole brevity thing.

January 27th, 2012 at 4:19 PM | An Awesome 17 Months? (Score:1)
OldBlueMan
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I guess short but sweet.......and awesome.

January 27th, 2012 at 4:20 PM | ... (Score:5 Normal)
MH20
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MGoPoints: 7575

Can we fire BRCE from this blog?

"The difference between a man and a boy is, a boy wants to grow up to be a fireman, but a man wants to grow up to be a giant monster fireman."

- Jack Handey

January 27th, 2012 at 4:30 PM | Haha (Score:3 Normal)
Hardware Sushi
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MGoPoints: 3481

Haha this is funny.

I've said something similar (about a different poster) and apparently the guy was upset so I ended up getting served one of those scary "don't attack other users" emails from the MGoJudicial system.

I don't know why but I felt really bad, as if I let someone important down. Like a kid when an adult gets pissed at you.

Anyway, the comment is hilarious. If you get an email, don't let it ruin your Friday night.

Intensity is a lot of guys that run fast.

January 27th, 2012 at 5:07 PM | Haha, thanks for the cautioning tale (Score:4 Normal)
MH20
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Joined: 10/30/2008
MGoPoints: 7575

In about 90 minutes I'm gonna be playing video games and swilling cheap beer with some buddies.  No worries here.

"The difference between a man and a boy is, a boy wants to grow up to be a fireman, but a man wants to grow up to be a giant monster fireman."

- Jack Handey

January 27th, 2012 at 5:31 PM | Damn, I miss college (Score:5 Normal)
Benoit Balls
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Joined: 11/27/2010
MGoPoints: 858

in 90 minutes I'll be changing a diaper and getting ready for dinner with the in-laws.

ALWAYS remember the golden rule: He who has the gold, makes the rules

 

January 27th, 2012 at 5:35 PM | Workin' man since '08 (Score:4 Normal)
MH20
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Joined: 10/30/2008
MGoPoints: 7575

I miss college, too; a night like tonight is how I try and recapture some of the innocence I've lost since leaving its warm, comforting embrace.

"The difference between a man and a boy is, a boy wants to grow up to be a fireman, but a man wants to grow up to be a giant monster fireman."

- Jack Handey

January 27th, 2012 at 5:54 PM | Also... (Score:4 Normal)
Hardware Sushi
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Joined: 03/08/2010
MGoPoints: 3481

Also working since '08. The key difference between you and benoitballs is a baby.

Warning to all people that like the college lifestyle: Having a baby will make your life ≠ college.

Luckily my friends have learned this lesson for me. Not that there's anything wrong w/babies if you're into that sorta thing haha....

Intensity is a lot of guys that run fast.

January 28th, 2012 at 3:17 AM | Halo: Reach conquered (Score:2)
MH20
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Joined: 10/30/2008
MGoPoints: 7575

Many crappy beers consumed.  Mission accomplished.

"The difference between a man and a boy is, a boy wants to grow up to be a fireman, but a man wants to grow up to be a giant monster fireman."

- Jack Handey

January 27th, 2012 at 4:49 PM | I'm happy he was fired. (Score:1 Flamebait)
aaamichfan
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Joined: 10/23/2009
MGoPoints: 14217

I'm happy he was fired. Reporting a person's death prematurely is complete bullshit. It's about time the media began to at least slightly police itself. 

January 27th, 2012 at 4:57 PM | I see that i'm in the (Score:3 Normal)
thisisme08
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Joined: 12/02/2008
MGoPoints: 1458

I see that i'm in the minority here. I understand it was a mistake but jeesh to fire the guy?  thats a bit much in my book especially when the media often takes a rumor and embellishes it with a 15 minute expose which has them standing outside a local HS/City Council/Gov/Sports team talking about nothing other than "we heard something".

Blue is Faster

January 27th, 2012 at 5:54 PM | They had to fire him, and (Score:1)
Sambojangles
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Joined: 12/15/2008
MGoPoints: 1317

They had to fire him, and even if they didn't I'm sure he would have resigned. That's the appropriate punishment, and part of the high-stakes game of journalism--you take a chance on a source, make a big mistake, and get the axe.

He does seem like a good guy though who made an honest mistake, and I think he will get picked up by somebody--nothing as high-profile as CBS Sports,  but if he is young and talented enough, this will eventually become a footnote to his career.

"The trouble with quotes on the internet, is that it is often difficult to discern whether or not they are genuine" --Abraham Lincoln

@Sambojangles

January 27th, 2012 at 5:55 PM | Adam Jacobi (Score:2)
LSAClassOf2000
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MGoPoints: 8709

I always enjoyed his stuff on BHGP and it is unfrotunate that he lost his position at CBS over this, but I understand why CBS did what they did. Sadly, in such situations, even if it was an honest mistake, it was a mistake that millions read, blogged, tweeted, retweeted....and in today's world, this sadly almost guarantees a canning if you turn out to be wrong or premature. 21st century media is a strange, strange thing sometimes. Hopefully, somebody picks him up somewhere - he's definitely worth a read when he's got something posted. 

"Funny isn't it, how naughty dentists always make that one fatal mistake."

Follow the random tweets of a Michigan alum - http://twitter.com/#!/LorneEC3

January 27th, 2012 at 6:19 PM | Didn't JoePa die the same (Score:1)
TheHoke.TheHoke...
Joined: 01/15/2011
MGoPoints: 108

Didn't JoePa die the same night he reported his death?  Maybe he had just inside info from the ultimate insider..

January 27th, 2012 at 6:19 PM | Didn't JoePa die the same (Score:0 Redundant)
January 27th, 2012 at 6:23 PM | To me, firing the guy seemed (Score:2 Normal)
bronxblue
Joined: 11/22/2008
MGoPoints: 12582

To me, firing the guy seemed too reactionary - yes he was wrong about Paterno's death, but he did have a somewhat-legit "source" (and yes, debate away about the quality of said source) and the intent clearly wasn't to defame or injury the Paterno family.  If anyone/anything is to the blame, it should be the system in place that rewards news organizations for being "first" over being right, or as I like to call it the Huffington Post/Gawker-ization of news reporting.

Did he deserve to be reprimanded?  Yes.  Is that a fireable offense given that so many other people responded in kind?  Not really, at least in my opinion.  I am all for news organizations accepting responsibility for being wrong, but that is the nature of reporting - the drive to report news oftentimes runs counter to the methodical authentication of said news that people trumpet when it serves their purposes.  And sometimes you come out on the right side and get a scoop, while other times you come down on the wrong side and incorrectly report news that may be damaging to the subject(s).  But to act like we (the news-consuming audience) and the institution of journalism itself don't t force reporters to walk this tight-rope is disingenuous.

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