[CQ-Contest] radio-sport.net web site or copy and paste journalism

[Ron Notarius W3WN]

Comparing NS3T's web site to the discredited tabloid "News Of The World" is
more than a bit much.

C'mon.  The point was made.  Heaping it on to the point of insults is
overkill... and starts to make me wonder about some of the motives here.

But never mind that for the moment... let's take a step back here.

There have been accusations of cheats and cheaters for as long as I've been
a contester.  And one of the many complaints, especially recently, has
involved the allegations that the cheating (if there was any) was being
"covered up" by contest committees, either as a whole, or by members thereof
who looked the other way on behalf of their buddies.  There have been many
posts bemoaning this.

So, now we have a contest committee that's willing to publish and publicly
identify some of those who are caught, or at least appear to have been
caught, bending the rules if not outright breaking them.  

So, it appears that someone involved with that contest, in the process of
gathering the data, made an error.  And that error was released to the
"media" -- and duly reported in NS3T's report on his web site.

So, now what happens?  The messenger is being shot.  First there are
accusations that Jaime didn't do his homework, or for not knowing what he
"should have" known... and now he and his web site are being compared to one
of the most notorious media/tabloid scandals or the recent past?

Keep in mind a few facts.  

One is that NS3T is a professional journalist, specifically a political
reporter, for WSB radio.  Should be no surprise there, it's right on his
main web page.  So this is not the work of someone who simply blogs whatever
comes to mind.

Second, any reporter is only as good as his sources.  If he is given
inaccurate information, and has no reason to doubt it, that's what he's
going to report on.  And face it, it's not like there are a lot of sources
out there to double- or triple-check information of this sort.  

Third, all appearances are that a human error was made due to no fault of
his own.  The error was corrected.  And frankly, if it had stopped there, I
doubt that most of us would have known about it.  The many complaints of
"look what he did to me!" (directly and indirectly) have only brought more
light onto the matter.  If there are true accusations of slander (actually
libel if it's in print, slander is verbal), I would wonder if one could
actually prove damages.  Further, consider that the aforementioned
complaints are possibly in & of themselves creating a self-fulfilling
prophecy, if you will, regarding damages... by drawing attention to the
entire situation.

Now I can not make any judgments or even evaluations of what was allegedly
written, as it's not there anymore.  So the entire matter of whether or not
any reputations are "damaged" becomes pure speculation.

Could Jaime have written a better apology?  Possibly.  Considering what we
know about the background of the allegations, I'm not sure what more he can
apologize for.  

But calling his professionalism into question?  Asking for his head on a
platter?  Just because you didn't like his evaluation of the incorrect
information he was given? 

More importantly, though, consider this.  The next time a contest committee
decides to release information of this sort... we do want to know about it,
don't we?  I certainly couldn't blame other members of the Amateur radio
"media" for having second thoughts, and not wanting to get blasted in this
way.  Who needs the grief?

73, ron w3wn