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Russert Death Leaked On Wikipedia Before Official NBC Announcement

by Will Safer on June 23, 2008 at 02:02 PM

Tim Russert

Good news travels fast, but bad news travels faster.

That's the lesson learned by the folks at NBC when news of their colleague Tim Russert's death found its way onto the Web before the network had made an official announcement.

Immediately following long time political reporter and NBC News Washington Bureau chief Russert's sudden collapse on the job, the NBC News team made a decision to keep news of his death quiet– and asked other media outlets to do the same – until his family, which was still on vacation in Italy, could be notified.

The news of Russert's death, however, did not remain a secret, as his Wikipedia entry was updated 40 minutes before NBC went official with the announcement.

A junior-level staffer at the Web news company Internet Broadcasting Service (IBS) saw the Russert information as it was fed out across the NBC affiliate network and, thinking the news was already public, updated Russert's Wikipedia page.

As this happened, multiple Twitter posts circulated around the Web with the same news, and even the New York Times Web site reported news of Russert's passing about five minutes before NBC made the official announcement over the air.

NBC was not happy with the leaks, and while the Wikipedia update was accurate, a senior member at IBS logged on and deleted all references to Russert's death, changing the entry back to present tense, despite the pending official announcement. To placate NBC, IBS has disciplined the junior staffer with at least a suspension and possibly with a firing. [Source: Silicon Alley Insider]

Tags: leak, NBC, Tim Russert, TimRussert, Wikipedia

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