Media Misreport Stephanie Tubbs-Jones Death

Several major news organizations, including The Associated Press, prematurely reported the death Wednesday of U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio, who had suffered a brain hemorrhage while driving in suburban Cleveland.

The reports were corrected after a doctor said at an afternoon news conference that Tubbs Jones was in critical condition with limited brain function. The Cleveland Clinic announced later that the 58-year-old Democrat died about 6 p.m. Wednesday.

Various Democratic officials who spoke on condition of anonymity provided the basis for most of the erroneous reports. They were out for anywhere from a few minutes to a half hour on CNN, CBS, Fox and Web sites for The Washington Post and The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer as well as the AP.

The AP moved its one-sentence, Washington-dated NewsAlert reporting the death at 2:30 p.m., attributing the information to a Democratic Party official. After the hospital news conference, the AP moved out a corrected alert at 2:44 p.m.

According to AP Washington News Editor Matt Yancey, the AP had spoken earlier to Democratic and Republican officials about Tubbs Jones' condition and they declined to speak on the record or on background. One of the Democratic officials later called back and, willing to speak on condition of anonymity, said Tubbs Jones had died.

That official later told the AP that both Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office and House Democratic Whip James Clyburn's office, as well as Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland's office, had been told that Tubbs Jones was dead. One Democratic leadership office sent out e-mails about 1 p.m. to other Democratic lawmakers' offices saying she had died.

"Once Nancy's notified, I've never seen it wrong before," the official said, again speaking on condition of anonymity.

Strickland spokesman Keith Dailey said "multiple local and national media reports" prompted the governor to issue a statement mourning her passing, but he declined to specify which reports.

The Washington Post, which erroneously reported the death on its "Capitol Briefing" blog, cited an anonymous Democratic source in its initial report.

"Capitol Briefing apologizes for the error and will be more careful as he continues to report this story," wrote Post writer Ben Pershing.

The Plain Dealer's story was on its Web site for about half an hour, said Susan Goldberg, the newspaper's editor. She said the newspaper based its report on "multiple trusted sources" and a high-ranking local Democratic party official.

"I think there's a lot of soul-searching going on here about this," she said. "Obviously we all feel terrible about it."

___

Associated Press writer Andrew Taylor in Washington contributed to this report.

Comments

[robbor]

the media's desire to report a story first is often more important than the story itself. that's the state of news.

[rh654]

What's the story anyway. The woman died - yes they reported it a bit early but the reality is she died shortly after the story broke that she was dead. Now if she had lived that would be a different story. But this is really making a mountain out of a mole hill.

The easy shot at the story is this: "Various Democratic officials who spoke on condition of anonymity provided the basis for most of the erroneous reports."

If Democrats can't tell who is alive and dead - no wonder they shouldn't be in charge.........

[lm945]

This is another example of the complete incompetance of the press. This was not a controversial story (momentous of course to her family and friends), and the press still couldn't be bothered to do their jobs and check their facts before announcing the wrong information.

[SignedSealedDelivered]

i liked jones, but i must say this is crap, people. i heard she was dead. a friend of mine (and a soror of hers) confirmed it. what actually happened is that the family was PISSED that it was leaked and threated to sue. they were to give a news conference at 2, but the story broke before then. sad, steph wasn't the kind of person to NOT be straight w/ her public.

[raker]

I love "including the Associated Press," as though that were a respectable organization. Very funny. The new standard is no standards. Now there are three stages to a news story: the incorrect report; the correct report; and a week of asking "how did the press get this so wrong." The news is corrupt. Pay no attention to it.

[Sam Sedaei - Huffpost Blogger]

If I remember correctly, Huffington Post also reported that she was dead before she was.

[GeoLee]

It sure did.

[wdw101]

so when does her replacement take office?

[Wigelah]

It is just another of many situations where incorrect information is given out to the public. Never mind that it actually did become a sad fact lateron, and it is true that the incorrect reporting of the incident did not cause her death. The fact of the matter is that it was reported incorrectly. Things continue to reported incorrectly or just made up. The one upmanship of newscoverage is the problem. It's become ok to report stuff without bothering to verify the facts. It's become ok to make claims about what someone would think if they were still alive. Shame on them. And, shame on us for allowing it to continue.

[ssaz]

Who cares who had it wrong! Representative Jones untimely death is the important and tragic news. Why must everyone make an issue of who made the mistake of reporting it first? Every news agency was surely waiting with baited breath for the first scoop. It's the nature of our media these days. Yes, it's unfortunate her death was reported prematurely but it harmed no one. Her family and close friends were already aware of the real situation. Stop making drama where none exists here.

[apoyo]

Obviously an error was made but it seems to me that only when her FAMILY announced her death should it have been reported. That would only have been respectful to her and to her family. This notion of newspeople getting the jump on other newspeople without regard to the human beings involved really leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Leave the sensationalism and yellow journalism to the likes of the Enquirer where it belongs.

[doctordrew]

This is such a non-story. Apologize for the error, caused by democrats leaking lies, and move on.

Reports of her death may have been exaggerated, but not by much! RIP Rep Tubbs.

[doctorwang]

What do the democrats have to do with it? The media were the ones that reported it. If they had done the proper research, and questioned the hospital/doctors, the 'error' would not have occured.
BTW: Faux news was one of the first to announce her death.......

[eugenegerard]

Sorta like when the media reported building seven twenty minutes before it came down.

[barackobama4prez]

it was very confusing. i wish it had ultimately been reported wrong.

[rascalmom]

Ms. Tubbs had been pronounced without brain functioning; perhaps the move to delay the actual physical death announcement because she made it known that she wanted to be considered for organ harvesting.

[presto]

Huffpo had it wrong too.

[sacrebleu]

An unintentional error was made by fallible human beings, a mistake which did not cause or hasten Stephanie Tubbs-Jones' sad and untimely death. In fact, nobody was harmed by it at all. Must you add to the pain of her shocked and grieving family with this cheap tabloid attempt to sensationalize the unfortunate circumstances surrounding the announcement of her death?