CNN destroyed by huge asteroid [View all]

What happens when a news org fails to fact-check or monitor user-generated content? Your brand goes boom

For at least 24 hours over the Memorial Day weekend, CNN hosted an article online that claimed a huge asteroid was on track to smash into the earth on March 35, 2041.

Astronomers have placed the odds of an impact at 1 in 2.04, which is by far the most unprecedented risk ever faced to humanity, let alone from asteroids. Such an impact could potentially end civilization as we know it.

The story turned out to be a hoax, a prank slipped into the cracks of CNN’s “iReport” project, an effort to tap CNN’s audience for stories that will help ” paint a more complete picture of the news.”

iReport is an interesting experiment, except for the part where CNN declares that “The stories here are not edited, fact-checked or screened before they post.”

http://www.salon.com/2014/05/27/cnn_destroyed_by_huge_asteroid/