Who Was First? Who Cares? | American Journalism Review

Who Was First? Who Cares? | American Journalism Review:

This morning, a Bloomberg News public relations staffer sent along this helpful tip to media news blogger/aggregator Jim Romenesko:

"Just wanted to reach out about your post about the coverage of today's Supreme Court health care ruling. You reference an email that notes that the AP first reported the decision – by our records, Bloomberg moved the story first at 10:07:31; the AP moved the story at 10:07:55. I've attached screen shots of both headlines with timestamps for your reference."

So Bloomberg was crowing that it beat the Associated Press by 24 seconds? 24 seconds? Really?

Give me a break.

(Off topic: And the flack also felt compelled to use the incredibly annoying and ubiquitous phrase "reach out." Nobody ever "seeks comment" anymore. They "reach out." Make it stop. Like "it is what it is," this one really stretches the limits of the First Amendment.)