Music reviewing and fact checking

I figured this would tie in a bit after I addressed the JOUR 200 class on Monday regarding music writing and reviewing. I wanted to talk a little bit about accuracy not just in music writing, but in any form that requires opinions.

There are way too many examples of writers being careless because they feel that if it's their opinion, the information is correct. As a result, a lot of opinions articles suffer from misinformation. If a writer feels they know something, they feel they have no reason check up on the facts.

Of course, this is an over exaggeration, but it does paint a picture of a prevalent problem (not to use too much alliteration). Columns and opinions pieces should be subject to just as much scrutiny as regular articles, if not more. In a column, not everything is attributed, so the error falls on the writer's shoulders, not a source.

Still, if an album release date is wrong or title is incorrect, it can be overlooked (which this blogger did in this article. It's fixed on the Web site, but it was embarrassing to make an error like that). It's that kind of carelessness that can label music writers, and opinions writers in general, lazy, which is not the case.

They should take responsibility for their work though, and make sure everything checks out. That way a mistake like the one I made is not made. Fact checking is essential, especially when it is not attributed to anyone.