guys as someone who technically “works” in the “field” of “journalism” please please please i would like you to remember that by the time you see a news item on tumblr it is likely to be hours old (at least).

for example i’m still seeing a lot of posts saying “pray for the people killed in the Japan tsunami and the Mexico earthquake”. as i write this there are no immediate reports of damage or injury in japan. and the same is true of mexico. Reuters even say re japan: “the Pacific Tsunami Center said there was no threat of tsunami from the quake”.

(to be clear: this post dates from 11.35 am UK time on 14/11/2015.)

the eiffel tower turns its lights off every night and donald trump’s gross tweet about gun control dates from the charlie hebdo attack. (the bbc have a good article debunking some of the widely-shared social media things from last night: “#Paris: the power, the horror, the distortions”.) the gif of the eiffel tower going out dates from january: i.e. also in memoriam for the charlie hebdo attack. (think about the chronology on this: last night’s attack would literally still have been going on when the light man at the eiffel made the decision to turn it off, which would be absurd.) The latest is that IS has claimed responsibility but ppl are working to confirm the authenticity of the statement (because that’s how journalism works).

if you want to be sure what is going on in “news” please just EXIT TUMBLR and go to a trusted news site: either an agency like the AP or Reuters, or something which is being frequently updated in real time: the BBC, the Guardian (link goes to today’s liveblog, not last night’s).

This.