Saturday, January 10, 2009

Bad, AOL News People

I just went to look at my e-mail and was stopped by this new headline out front on AOL's home page...


Can't see it? How about now:

And I'm like, "Whoa!" Did something break when I wasn't looking? The biggest new hotel being built on the Strip right now is either Aria or Fontainebleau. I hadn't heard of any delays in either of those.

Alas, you click on the link and it takes you to a 4-day-old Reuters story about the shorning and delays for The Harmon, which was never supposed to have more than 400 hotel rooms and had lost its 200 condo units because of construction mistakes. In fact, oddly, at 400 rooms, The Harmon actually qualifies as the SMALLEST new hotel to have been built on the Strip in as long as I can remember. Sure, it's a piece of the largest construction complex, CityCenter, but this headline is bad.

Just saying.

2 comments:

El said...

I used to edit for AOL's Digital Cities unit. Remember that? Didn't think so. Anyway, it was some of the worst copy anywhere... And AOL didn't care about quality. They were pushing quantity. "Customized" news for X number of cities, every day. It was garbage.

Looks like -- even in a different guise -- it still is. Not at all surprising.

Anonymous said...

I think you're seeing the 'dark side' of the Internet and it's effect on true journalism. The competition and speed of the web has caused most news outlets to forgo integrity and double checking sources, instead replacing it with fast, tabloid style attention grabbing stories to get their share of reader, viewers, or hit counts. This is a perfect example of spinning a fender-bender into a massive fatal collision. Which story would catch your eye and get your click?

The misinformation also never becomes 'yesterday's news' as it lingers on in search engines. You're seeing the effects of this in the economy, making it much worse than it should be. All the gloom and doom causes those with the money to invest or spend to become 'cautious', as Wynn mentioned in your interview. Little do these media outlets realize, but they're shooting themselves in the foot. As long as they spread this tawdry 'news', the thinner becomes their ad revenue streams because of it.