As a journalist, there is a little thing that I firmly believe in called accuracy. Now as a journalist, I not only believe in holding myself to this accuracy standard, but I expect it of my competitors as well. Recently, one of our primary competitors in Kansas City, The Pitch, majorly let us down by printing a series of errors in regard to Warped Tour.
One of the first things they teach you in j-school is to double, even triple check names. That is to say you should know who or what you are covering. This is simple enough and makes sense. Now I can excuse the occasional typo. Sometimes your finger slips and you stick an extra t or s where it doesn’t belong, but as I was browsing The Pitch’s photo slides, I was dismayed at the repeated error in the spelling of Relient K’s name.
Not only was the name misspelled underneath the photos, but the tags that appeared when the mouse hovered were also wrong: Reliant K. I know what you’re thinking, Relient with an e is less common, this mistake is understandable. Plus, we all know how much energy it takes to google things these days when you’re updating a website. I mean you might have to open a new window to look something up–terribly difficult and a sure way to clutter your screen. However, I know you’ll agree with me that it is unforgiveable to misspell the name when it is clearly spelled accurately in the photograph you are describing as can be seen here:
The background looks to be fairly in focus to me, so it seems like it would have been pretty easy to see the accurate band name for labeling the pictures. The mislabeling continues if you notice that the headline reads, “Warped Tour at Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre.” The venue is actually called Sandstone Amphitheater at Cap Fed Park. I’m amazed the date is at least right.
As if the repeated error in poor Relient K’s name wasn’t enough, the writer made up information for The Pitch’s Wayward Blog that gave a rundown of the day’s events. Even though author Danny Alexander admitted that he didn’t attend for the duration of the event, he still tried to give an account as though he remained until the last band got rained out.
The most problematic of his paragraphs was when he wrote, “This year, perhaps because of expected headliners like Katy Perry and Gym Class Heroes, (both of which hit the stage after my daughter and her friends fled the event in the midst of a hail storm), the crowd seemed comprised of many more young women as well as more of a mix of a races.” First, Katy Perry wasn’t technically a headliner. They usually don’t have headliners play around 5:45 on one of the smaller stages. Second, the storm didn’t start until midway through Gym Class Heroes. There would have been no reason to miss Perry or a majority of Gym Class Heroes. Maybe if Alexander had mentioned the actual headliner, Angels and Airwaves, whom actually did get rained out, I could have forgiven his statement. Granted, how was he supposed to know that he was inaccurate in this statement since he already admitted he left early, despite his continued attempt to report on this event?
I apologize if this post comes off as rude or mean. I do respect The Pitch more than other publications in Kansas City. It’s just a problem that a publication that has staff to catch errors like this would allow something like this to get published.
However, it does make me feel really proud that in one day, Josh and I did more than The Pitch’s reporters and did it better. As PopWreckoning readers, you should also feel proud that you are choosing to read the accurate coverage. An article where we know the bands we are covering and aren’t just taking some kid’s opinion. We were there for the whole time. We risked our cameras and recorders in the rain to bring you the most accurate Warped report we could.
If anybody from The Pitch reads this, please step it up a notch. As our competitors, I want you to actually give us some competition.
The Pitch: Warped Article | main
Relient K: website | myspace
Katy Perry: website | myspace
Gym Class Heroes: website | myspace
Angels and Airwaves: website | myspace
Written by Bethany
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