Yet Another Reason to Monitor

Naturally, any company concerned with responsible brand and reputation management ought to be monitoring news and social media already.

But in case you needed one more reason, I offer you this.

It seems that former ABC consultant Alexis Debat had decided to pull a Stephen Glass for his articles in French political journal Politique Internacionale, publishing entirely fabricated “interviews” with such high profile subjects as former President Clinton, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, presidential candidate Sen. Barak Obama and even United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan.

The magazine claims it had no knowledge of the fabrications, despite Debat’s sketchy history–the journalist was let go from ABC News after questions were raised about his academic credentials.

The disappearance of the news cycle and the advent of citizen journalism has made constant news monitoring a complex undertaking of vital importance; but sometimes it’s as simple as making sure there isn’t anyone out there writing up complete fabrications and passing them off as fact.

Technorati tags: media monitoring, Stephen Glass, fake news