Monday, June 02, 2008

Angelina Jolie Birth: The Babies Were Not Premature But The Announcement Seems To Be

Entertainment

Many of heard of premature births, they happen all the time, but Entertainment Tonight seems to have jumped the gun and announced that the Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's twins were born. The births weren't premature but the announcement was.
In Entertainment Tonight's Friday broadcast, they announced the birth of the Brad Jolie twins, saying that "a source who says she was inside the delivery room tells us yes, the babies were born and yes, mother and babies are doing fine."

This report was denied by Pitt's manager and when trying to verify the information, other news organizations couldn't confirm the information.

People magazine first reported that the story was not true and US Weekly checked its own facts and also could not confirm.

Brad Pitt also was seen attending a sports event over the weekend, no travel plans were made by any of the grandparents and no flower deliveries were made to the hospital either, all clues that the original Entertainment Tonight story was premature.

Access Hollywood executive producer, Rob Silverstein, speaks about a mistake of this magnitude, saying, "As news and information move at a lightning pace, it's all the more reason to be right first than first wrong."

The report of the babies' birth was magnified when The Associated Press reported that "Entertainment Tonight" had said the twins had arrived. Although The AP could not immediately confirm or debunk the report, its editors talked with an "Entertainment Tonight" spokeswoman about the source and "we felt confident that they had the story nailed down," said Lou Ferrara, AP managing editor who supervises entertainment coverage.

The AP also felt that "Entertainment Tonight" had a solid reputation in the world of celebrity news, he said.


Furthermore, Entertainment Tonight removed the original story from their website and unofficially a representative spoke saying they have not retracted the story.

Calls to Linda Bell Blue, the shows executive producer, were not returned.

A good example why fact checking a story is more important than being the first to write about it.

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