It's been about two weeks since Dutch gaming site DGS Online posted a story about a supposed logo for the PS3 that turned out to be an an old mock-up by European mag PSM2. I must say I'm pleasantly surprised by the way some web sites handled the story. Particular credit goes to GamesIndustry.biz (GI) not only for making "a quick call to Sony PR" to confirm the story, but also for posting a story about the fake logo to help correct the record.
GI could have sat on the information and simply gotten on with their business, but instead they posted a more accurate story for thei readers who may have heard about it elsewhere. This is not only good journalism, but classy as well. Of course, the site loses some of their classiness points by suggesting in their article that "We're not sure where the rumour originated, but we suspect that some chancer has pulled a fast one on giant US game news site IGN, which breathlessly reported on the unveiling of the logo earlier today." No one likes a tattle-tale, GI. Credit also goes to Spong.com and GamerFeed, among others, for waiting and posting correct stories instead of jumping on the rumors (although I must comment on the Spong headline. "A World of Lies" might be taking it a bit far)
But all is not peaches and cream as far as this story is concerned (mmm, peaches). As GI mentioned, IGN was one of the big sites that got fooled by the logo, and their posting quickly caused other sites to perpetuate the lies. Even though a lot of sites were a bit skeptical in their articles (there were a lot of question marks in headlines), their articles were still based on false information, and no amount of skepticism can change that. Enough sites went with the rumor that a lot of people were probably misinformed. On the other hand, many of thse sites later corrected themselves, and a lot of sites posted only the correct story, so most of the misinformed probably found out the truth eventually. Even if they didn't, they probably saw one of the countless message board threads discussing whether the logo was real or not (and whether it was good looking or not. The concensus on the latter seemes to be "not")
An amusing little epilogue to this tale: Mainstream pop culture news site eNewsZone posted a false story about the logo a full three days after GI's correct story ran. Being wrong before anyone knows better is one thing, but being wrong three days after the truth has been widely known is just sloppy.
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