ST. CROIX — Yesterday The Virgin Islands Consortium first published a story announcing the arrest of Governor John P. de Jongh, and reported that he was being processed at the District Court in St. Thomas, based on information provided by reliable sources that the publication has come to trust.
As it turned out, however, the former governor was charged and processed at St. Thomas’ Superior Court, and the case, we subsequently reported, is being carried out by the local Dept. of Justice.
VI Consortium’s sources have been 98 percent reliable. In fact, two sources confirmed with the publication before publishing the story that the case was being processed at the Superior Court; however it chose to move forward with the other sources because their reliability, up until yesterday, was perfect.
And so the story on Facebook, which has been removed from the page, continued to state that the former governor was processed at the District Court because of how Facebook hard-code’s links, meaning once a story is published on Facebook, the title cannot change — leaving no other option but to delete the story. Those who clicked on the link, however, would have noticed that the story had been updated to reflect the correct information.
We want to apologize to our loyal community that has trusted us throughout our existence. We have updated our policy as it relates to gathering of news from sources to assure that moving forward such mistakes are rarely made, if at all.
Publications make corrections all the time, and we believe it serves our readership well, and shows respect, by doing so.
The Consortium continues to welcome community feedback.
Best,
Founding Editor, Ernice Gilbert.
Tags: the virgin islands consortium, vi consortium
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