The Barbados Nation's Gaffe
Fri, Jan 3, '03
CARIBBEANCRICKET.COM EDITORIAL
A report in the Barbados Nation newspaper on Friday quoted West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) President Wes Hall taking a swipe at CaribbeanCricket.com for publishing "an erroneous rumour" related to Nixon McLean and his place in the World Cup team.
What the Barbados Nation report failed to mention was that it lifted the so-called "news story" from a posting on our message board and decided it was worth pursuing. Simply put, this is a rare bit of irresponsible journalism from a respected news outlet that really should know better.
That the Barbados Nation chose to badger the WICB President with an obvious hoax/prank posting on an Internet message board is not our problem. However, we do take issue with is the poor judgement used by the Barbados Nation reporter in pursuing this 'story'. A simple e-mail or instant message check with us (we have exchanged 'instant messages' with Nation reporters in the past) on the legitimacy of the message board posting would have avoided this embarrassment for them.
For the record, we were contacted by four reporters in the Caribbean checking about the validity of the message board post and we immediately told them it was a prankster playing a foolish joke.
A cursory glance would have shown a photo of Nixon Mclean in our "Penthouse" being congratulated for making the World Cup team. By the way, McLean's ascendancy to the "Penthouse" was made just hours after the WICB announced the squad.
We do not censor, control or otherwise moderate the posts on our message board. However, we do take pride in the accuracy of the news stories on our front page and our fair share of exclusive stories have shown us to be on top of things.
Interestingly, when the Barbados Nation lifted our exclusive report that Marlon Samuels had been expelled from the India tour, only to be saved by Hall's intervention, they refused to credit us with the story (see link).
This brings us to another serious point. Is this a deliberate attempt by the WICB (in concert with the Barbados Nation) to discredit the CaribbeanCricket.com Web site? Taking everything into consideration, this is a legitimate question.
We have contacted the Barbados Nation and pointed out that its reporter was duped by a fake message board post that this site had no control over. If they wish to wash the egg off their faces and issue a public apology, that would be nice.
If not, that's fine too. Anyone with half a brain knows who's wrong here.