The Internet has given everyone the power to be a reporter. This is not necessarily a bad thing - I know better than most how little gets reported in the mainstream media and how ofter what is reported is distorted. Unfortunately, the average Internet user doesn't receive a journalist's training in fact-checking and ethics.
Case in point is a story making the rounds about how local San Francisco hotels gouged the victims of the recent airplane crash as San Francisco Airport with inflated room rates. Hey, the facts were right there on the hotels' websites for all to see: rooms that normally rent for $100 or $200 a night were costing up to $1,200.
Except, of course, that isn't the whole story and the truth is quite different. The high rates are indeed correct - at the time of the crash the Bay Area was hosting the annual Semicon West conference, a huge microelectronics conference that creates the second busiest week of the year for Bay Area hotels. Hotel rates are adjusted based on the rules of supply and demand, so the rates hosted on the companys' websites are normal for this time of year.
But that isn't the rate that was charged to victims and their families. Instead, local hotels set aside hundreds of rooms, lowered rates and offered discounts of up to 70% to victims and their families while turning away guests at the higher rate. Our local hotels did their bit and they don't deserve the bad rap they got from the Internet "journalists".
So they next time you come across a startling expose and are tempted to hit the "share" button, take a minute or two to do some fact checking. There's plenty of bad information out there already and we should do our best not to add to it.
Comments