Igor The Troll

Twitter Robert Scoble aka Scobleizer reports China, Eastern Sichuan earthquake in real time, 3 minutes before USGS NEIC reported it on their Website.

Robert Scoble

Would you Trust this man reporting the Evening News to you, least of all an important event as the Earthquake in China Eastern Sichuan?

China Earthquake Devastation

Yes, anyone can report anything on Twitter, but things need to be verified not taken per say. We do not want someone sending a Twitter message saying that Iran’s President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has attacked Israel with nuclear missiles, and based on this information President George W Bush declares Defcon one and retaliates against Iran with a nuclear missile strike.

So while Twitter is useful to disseminate information, that information needs to be verified through professional journalistic channels before take per authoritative value.

Robert Scoble picked up a Tweet from a Twitter user in China and has reported the even to other Twitters. There is nothing worg with this, and it is admirable. This is what Twitter does. It is an Echo Chamber! “You say, I say, we say!” The message bounces around!

The Truth and validate of the message needs to be verified or it can start World War Three based on some Rumor!

In the China earthquake case USGS NEIC is the verifiable agency! They have reported the Eastern Sichuan earthquake 3 minutes after Robert Scoble did on Twitter. But that is their job to check the integrity of the data before making it public.

Robert Scolbe has bragged about “Reporting the news first on Twitter!” Twittering the earthquake in China on his blog.

Robert Scolbe has bragged about it on WebProNews Twitter To Report Quake In China reporting his own article.

Businessweek.com links to the WebProNews in its own article Why Twitter Matter without one word of constructive criticism to the integrity of Twitter data.

BBC reports on its Website how smart Robert Scoble is. Twitter and the China earthquake. Again no word of criticism about the validity of Twitter data transmitted by anonymous users.

I am sure there tons of Main media Websites and news services that are given great review to Twitter, as if it is a new Panacea - the cure of all malice. Well it is not!

Only one person in social media besides me stood up and criticized Robert Scoble of his exuberance. It is Danny Sullivan the chief editor of Search Engine Land in is his article. Twitter Beats (Wow, By 3 Minutes) The USGS With China Earthquake News

I emailed BBC alerting them of this Spamming and abuse of the devastating suffering of the China earthquake people. But I doubt if they care. In the new age of journalism, it is report first and sell the news, true, false, inflated, has no relevancy.

Remember the recent “Teenagers buying hookers with dad’s credit card!” story? That was a fake propagated by an Internet Marketer for a British newspaper.

News is Integrity, let’s follow the process!