Joe Paterno's death falsely reported: see a timeline about erroneous reports

FROM THE EXPRESS TIMES

Some news organizations, a cadre of websites and social media lit up last night with false reports that former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno passed away Saturday.

It all started with news that Paterno, who is receiving treatment for lung cancer, took a turn for the worse and his family was rushing to be by his side Saturday. But then came reports that Paterno allegedly was taken off a respirator, and the story spiraled from there to his purported death.


Poynter Institute has a timeline of when the story “broke” of Paterno’s passing -– complete with the embarrassing online trail and timestamps.

Onward State, a student-run website, first reported Paterno's death on Twitter at 8:45 p.m., citing sources who claimed an email was sent to football players.

But the story gained traction when CBS Sports published its obituary of Paterno, although it did not attribute the news to any source.

I started getting a flurry of texts from people around the same time with the “breaking news,” and my own reaction was to go to the Web to see the reports. What I found was a tangled knot of contradicting stories, with many citing Onward State or CBS, but the overall sense was that most outlets couldn’t confirm the reports.

You can read about where the story went from there at the Poynter website -- ultimately being debunked by Paterno’s son, Jay, on Twitter and through a family spokesperson –- and the response from the managing editor of Onward State.

How did you hear about reports? What was your reaction as you found out the reports were wrong?

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/breaking-news/index.ssf/2012/01/how_the_erroneous_reports_of_j.html