Would You Exaggerate the Truth for a Good Story?

Because many bloggers are trying to make a living online, we can’t help but think about ways to increase traffic.

One of the best ways to get traffic is to write something interesting / controversial. If you read Digg and  Reddit, the articles that do well are often criticising some person / some institution. You just don’t get a story on the Digg home page with a title like

“Congressman does Good work, in finding a thoughtful solution to this longstanding problem”

Therefore, every blogger, (and to be fair every newspaper editor) has an incentive to sensationalise and perhaps exaggerate an initial story.

There is an interesting story picked up by Darius Monsef at Young go Getter about the dangers of exaggerating initial stories so that we end up with something completely true. via Daily Bits

(BTW - Daily Bits is a new blog by Daniel of Daily Blogging Tips - well worth bookmarking)
Basically, bloggers were up in arms about Nissand who claimed be making bogus claims about a self healing paint.

It went from:

    ‘color changing paint technology is being viewed by Nissan and other auto companies’
to…
‘Nissan talking up their bogus but juicy claim to have developed a self-healing paint system that can actually change color based on your mood, will be on production vehicles by 2010.’

In a way it becomes rather amusing, that such an exaggeration has occured. However, it is easy to see that this kind of reporting could be alot more common that we think. How many digg type stories have a similar level of exaggeration? Perhaps we will never know.

The problem is that it is easy to ignore the costs to others of misleading claims. I think there is a lot to be said for being very cautious before jumping on a bandwagon of criticism.

At the same time of course, bloggers can raise awareness of issues, perhaps left by traditional media. But, if this potential is not met with responsibility, it is a real problem.

Also, I think there is a difference between exaggerating the facts and looking for an interesting angle on a topic. It is a careful balance to maintain though.