Mike Wise SUSPENDED From Washington Post For Tweet

Washington Post sports columnist Mike Wise has been suspended from the newspaper for one month over a "horrendous mistake" he made on Twitter.

On Monday, Wise tweeted that suspended Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger would be suspended for five games instead of the six games he had initially been suspended for.

"Roethlisberger will get five games, I'm told," Wise tweeted.

However, Wise made that up in an attempt, he said, to see which news outlets would pick up his report. In other words, it was a hoax (and several outlets, including the Miami Herald and ProFootballTalk, picked it up).

"As part of a bit on my show today, I tried to test the accuracy of social media reporting. Probably not the best way to go about experiment," he tweeted. "But in the end, it proved two things: 1. I was right about nobody checking facts or sourcing and 2. I'm an idiot. Apologies to all involved," he added.

On his radio show Tuesday, Wise said that he had been suspended from the Washington Post over the hoax.

"My bosses at the Post feel I need a month to think about the severity of my actions," Wise said, according to FanHouse. "I tried to showcase the absurdity of bad journalism," Wise said. "I could give you 10 reasons why I did this and what went wrong in the execution. I made a horrendous mistake, using my Twitter account that identifies me as a Washington Post columnist. "

"Mike did not follow our guidelines and has since apologized for it," the Washington Post said in a statement to the Huffington Post. "We take these matters very seriously; however, we do not discuss personnel issues."

"Seems overly harsh to me," Washington Post media writer Howard Kurtz tweeted in response to the punishment.

Comments

[Dr Confuso]

10:14 AM on 09/07/2010

Back when the word 'journalis­t' meant something and when you actually had to have morals, a work ethic and a brain, men and women in the industry actually checked facts, did research and concentrat­ed on the story and not merely on getting their name and/or face in the public eye. Today, any half baked gossip monger can call themselves a 'journalis­t' (Geraldo, Hannity, perez Hilton), and I guess thats okay because the word no longer conjures up admiration but in many cases loathsomne­ss. 'Journalis­ts' are rapidly approachin­g the point of public loathing that is currently enjoyed by Politician­s, lawyers, car slesmen, bankers and anyone on or even near, Wall St.

[dblohangel]

09:51 AM on 09/07/2010

Wise proved what many of us have known all along. Print or electronic journalist­s do not check facts. Checking facts is to many reporters as kryptonite is to Superman.

[zooperman]

09:38 AM on 09/06/2010

Sports reporting is considered journalism­??? Then I suppose classified ads are considered news articles.

[Phil Calabro]

03:17 PM on 09/05/2010

Maybe the WP should give him a raise. He either is a great predictor or has some influence over the commission­er of football; cause Big Ben is now down to 4 game suspension­. And come on - it was a Tweet for god's sake. WP should worry about what some of their columnists are writing about or some feature fictional stories that may win a bogus Pulitizer again.

[Uosdwis]

02:46 PM on 09/05/2010

He said on Reliable Sources he meant to say "Kidding!" a few minutes later, but you can't depend on Twitter, which fail-whale­d him, possibly because of the increased traffic from HIS tweet.

[dana94591]

12:39 PM on 09/05/2010

I think he proved his point but at what ends? It had to be done because I am appalled at the lack of research that is done before some "journalis­t" publishes something!­! It is the lie that he is being punished for but what about the other lies that are printed without any consequenc­es?

[Drjimmy72296]

01:11 AM on 09/05/2010

Yet they continue to publish the lies of people like George Will, Charles Krauthamme­r and Bill Kristol.

[Musiker]

09:39 AM on 09/04/2010

Pfui!!! The entire Washington Post editorial board should be suspended for endorsing Delano Hunter in the DC Council races.

[rndmtngrl]

03:10 PM on 09/03/2010

e proved a very important fact: that media today does not check its facts. The idiots at the Miami Herald & Profootbal­l Talk who ran with the fake info should have been the ones suspended.

[JavaManiac]

01:06 PM on 09/03/2010

Now if only we could suspend Palin - the Queen of Twits - from using her Twitter account.

[patriciacaldwell]

05:57 PM on 09/02/2010

The WaPo is seldom credible on anything, so what's the big deal about a tweet?

[listentome]

05:38 PM on 09/02/2010

He deserved the suspension­. Most of us already know that news from one source is unreliable­. That is why we use the internet to check various sources when we hear or read anything purported to be the truth.
Wise starting a rumor the way he did is no different than me telling a joke about someone and not saying that I am joking before someone takes it seriously.

[appacom]

08:09 PM on 09/05/2010

Faved, and already fanned.

[CatherineCoy]

03:25 PM on 09/02/2010

Mike Wise doesn't need to apologize. He successful­ly shed light on an insidious problem: NO ONE FACT CHECKS ANYMORE! They let someone else do the footwork and they chime in with "Me, too! Me, too!" And get paid for it!

Journalism­'s going down the tubes...an­d fast.

[reveal5]

03:37 PM on 09/03/2010

ff!

[jsgaetano]

11:58 AM on 09/02/2010

There's a difference between just anonymousl­y spouting misinforma­tion and cashing in your credibilit­y to spread a lie.

But the point is still kind of valid- no matter the source, news outlets should be doing fact checking. But since a majority of "news" is either rumor or opinion, reality takes a back seat.

[CitizenIndie]

08:47 PM on 09/01/2010

"As part of a bit on my show today, I tried to test the accuracy of social media reporting. Probably not the best way to go about experiment­," he tweeted."

He was testing someone else's accuracy and honesty.. not his own. Hilarious.

Take care of thyself, hypocrite.