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Hey! My name’s Kevin and I wrote this article that’s been making the rounds. I’m pretty proud of it. But now I need to talk about a disturbing trend in journalism. THREAD https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/music/for-death-angel-drummer-coming-out-of-coronavirus-coma-was-like-escaping-hell
I’m a freelance reporter and I spent months working on my story. While I was the first to speak to Will’s doctors, who provided new details on Will’s case and revealed what they learned from treating him, which was a lot. What they gained from him saved lives. 2/
@sfcdatebook ran the story last week and it made a big splash. Now it’s being poached by big news outlets like @gq, @nypost and @foxnews. All three of these outlets wrote their own versions of my story using only my reporting -- no other sources. 3/
If you didn’t already know, that sucks. It’s ethically abhorrent and just plain bad journalism. On top of it all, these stories focus on Will’s visions while he was in a coma -- literally the least important details in this story. 4/
Yet this happens all the time. Media outlets will write their own versions of a popular story in order to snag some of its SEO. I know this because I spent 10 years working at the online desks of two large daily news publications in the Bay Area. 5/
It’s so essential to modern day news publishing that one of the writers at the @nypost has it in her job title 6/
I wouldn’t have a problem with what these outlets did if they did their own reporting. But on top of riding my coattails they’re not even trying to be good journalists. They should not be depending on just one source, no matter what that source is. 7/
It’s the extent of the laziness these outlets demonstrated that is the most frustrating. It’s like they couldn’t be bothered to do any research at all. A simple Google search brings up plenty of other stories about Will, many with original reporting. 8/
Giving credit where it’s due, metal blogs like http://blabbermouth.net have been all over Will’s story since the beginning. When writing my story I used them for background. As a matter of fact, Will first discussed his devil visions with @dbmagazine. 9/ https://www.decibelmagazine.com/2020/04/13/death-angels-will-carroll-on-his-coronavirus-battle-they-seriously-thought-i-was-going-to-die/
Bay Area media outlets also covered the story, with KPIX filing a fantastic story that featured interviews with the band describing their fights with the virus. 10/ https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2020/04/20/coronavirus-bay-area-thrash-metal-band-death-angel-survive-horrifying-brush-covid-19/?fbclid=IwAR3-zYYT-3_7Mai6u8esmS_I71cEAlXPTOK41XTSbhty3fNuOUazusJ7ENc
So the “journalists” at the sites that stole my story have no excuse for finding other sources because they’re everywhere. Yet instead they only used mine, and they think by adding one or two attributions excuses their theft when it really doesn’t. 11/
The main reason I’m pointing this all out is because journalists need to be better, especially these so-called “reporters.” Their behavior is unacceptable and they need to know. 12/
Readers can help by telling those that share one of these rip-offs to share the original story instead. Fight the spread of the lazy journalism virus! 13/
And to @TamarLapin, @dukelarby, and the others -- be better. FIN/
