You Gotta Love Jimmy Kimmel!

So on last Monday Night’s, Jimmy Kimmel LIVE on ABC, Jimmy admitted that he punk’d the audience.  He revealed that he and his staff produced a fake Twerking video.  For those who of you who do not know what twerking is, see Miley Cyrus on MTV’s most recent Video Music Awards Show.  The video shows a girl seemingly twerking for her boyfriend and during an upside down maneuver against a door, the door opens from the outside.  She is knocked down, landing on a coffee table full of lit candles.

Have you seen this???

Kimmel’s staff posted it to an anonymous YouTube account about two months ago and the video had 9-million views in one week on that account alone.

So besides this video receiving nearly 9-million views in a week on the Internet, it was picked by hundreds of local news outlets and National News Networks including CNN, HLN and MSNBC.  Even National shows such as “The Talk” and “The View” aired the video as real news.

So what’s the problem???

Before I get to the problem, let me tell you that I have a wicked sense of humor.  You need a sense of humor in the News business because of the immense responsibility Journalists deal with every day to balance the good and the bad news and to make sure the material we present is accurate and truthful, day in and day out.  And by the way, I watch Jimmy Kimmel every night!  So I’m certainly a Jimmy Kimmel fan and love the video ─ for its entertainment value.

So here’s the problem:  All of the News organizations that aired, published and distributed this video and called it news ─ without vetting it.  Why didn’t someone at any decision making level investigate the authenticity of what turned out to be a prank?

And news outlets wonder why so many of them have lost their credibility!  Mobile Generated News® vets all of our news videos and still images before we post them! We ARE the solution for getting original, real-time, vetted content into your News operation, FAST! 

What do you think?  I look forward to your comments.

 ─Jeff Wald, Executive Director, Mobile Generated News®, Los Angeles.

Get connected your to local news organizations and contribute original news material by downloading the Mobile Generated News® App from the Apple App store.  Just search for Mobile Generated News.  Remember, if it is newsworthy, we will post it nationwide and you will see it on the MoGN “Newsfeed” distributed to Broadcast stations, Newspapers, Web Sites and news organizations across the United States and soon around the World.  Mobile Generated News® MoGN, Mobile News…Global Views.