ZDnet/Iran Hubbub: A Cautionary Web 2.0 Tale

So: Either Yahoo is lying or Koman got some bad information. I'm no great fan of faceless corporations, and lord knows Yahoo has been guilty of handing over information to repressive regimes in the past, but I'm going with Yahoo here. That story just seems too over the top -- and the sources too vague and self interested -- to be believable.

Here's usually where blogger/bloviators like Jeff Jarvis like to step in, puff themselves up, and talk about what they call "process journalism." You report a rumor or an unsubstantiated claim as soon as you can, then update it as more information comes in. If the rumor ends up being false, eventually that becomes part of the story too. The process of reporting becomes as public as the story itself. Sounds good, right?

(For a slightly different take on process journalism in action, see "Steve Jobs Arrested For Shoplifting.")

Of course, when the rumor turns out to be complete BS, the damage has already been done. As the old saying goes, you can't unring a bell. In the 12 hours between the allegation appearing and Yahoo's denial, the story spread. Some people will only see that Digg headline and not Yahoo's denial. It will become a "fact" inside their head that's unlikely to ever be dislodged.

And when it involves things like a company's reputation, the stock market responds -- as Apple stock did to bogus rumors about Steve Job's "heart attack" a year ago. Sure, the Web got the story right in the end, but that doesn't help the people who sold at a loss, does it?

In the "normal" way of reporting (i.e., pre-blogosphere), the reporter would have gone to his editor, who might have held the story until he got a response from Yahoo, then decided whether it was worth running. It might never have appeared at all.

Of course, it may also turn out that Koman's right and Yahoo is full of it. In which case, way to go Richard! But I'm not putting any money on that.

So what's right about this? The speed at which news can travel, the informal paths it can take, the difficulty of suppressing news people in power may not want you to see. For example: I found this story via Computerworld's IT blogwatch author Richi Jennings, who tweeted out Yahoo's denial, which found its way into my Facebook feed. That wouldn't have happened a couple of years ago, either.