The Sun News: Put real names on the blog

TheDigitel Myrtle Beach

It's been a interesting week in Myrtle Beach area news. 

Obviously, Coastal Carolina's head coach announcement was the talk of the town both online and in real life. For those of us that make it our business to inform and connect the community, it was downright exciting. Local sports website Grand Strand Sports Report was the first to break the news and then posted a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse on how they beat everyone else to the correct story.  Once the announcement was confirmed with a press release, it was a frenzy.

Today, Editor and Vice President of The Sun News Carolyn Callison Murray wrote a piece on their self-described "old-fashioned" journalistic integrity. Read it here. It specifically cites the Moglia announcement as an example of their convictions. Murray states that The Sun News also knew Moglia was the new head coach but refused to publish it until they could explicitly name their source. It very reminiscent of the Newsweek and Drudge Report beef over the Clinton Scandal. But maybe because CCU football and Bennett have been dominating the headlines recently, this immediately popped into my mind:

This is to not make light of The Sun News standards and quality of their content. As we monitor almost 60 Myrtle Beach area websites to find the best local content online, The Sun News consistently delivers the most interesting and well covered local stories on a daily basis. For what we do at TheDigitel, having a variety of quality local news coverage only gives us more reason to be here. 

While there are both legal and ethical reasons for maintaining strict standards, it does bring up a debate in this new Wild West of news and information online. 

If Grand Strand Sports Report was wrong in their story, what would have been the result?

What if The Sun News had broken the story with a named source that turned out to be wrong? Or CCU changed their mind at the eleventh hour?

What if this wasn't a sports announcement but something more grave?

Perhaps it's questions for a debate that is really only interesting to editors, reporters and publishers. 

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