Nasa's Big Mistake

Oops. According to BBC, the US Space Agency, Nasa, has admitted to mistaking a mountain in India for Mount Everest when it posted a picture taken from space. If there's one thing that loses an organization's credibility, it's mistaking a huge landmark like Everest. I'm sure it was the fault of someone who was on their first day of the job, had no idea what they were doing, and was not an expert on Nepalese mountain ranges.
I bring this up because I think this type of thing could definitely happen to journalism students, and I think it is worth mentioning that once we are employed, we really need to focus more on accuracy. It's so easy to make a dumb mistake, like misquoting someone, spelling their name wrong, giving them the wrong title, etc. I worry that journalism students aren't used to people checking their sources for errors, and when you work for a publication or any news outlet that hundreds, if not thousands of people read each day, you are representing that publication's integrity. Teachers don't have the time to go through every single source that you write about in your paper and shoot for your video. So, if you spell someone's name wrong, or make them sound bad, etc., it's not a huge deal. But in reality, it's actually someone's reputation on the line, and people can be very defensive about that. Not to mention, people in the US will sue anyone for just about anything. Whoever made the Nasa mistake most likely got fired, I am guessing. Having to go out and publicly state that they made a mistake and apologize to the world is not a matter that is taken lightly. Same goes for journalism. Here is the infamous picture and its headline on BBC. To remind you, this NOT Everest.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20714990