Lessons Learned: the Kimo Leopoldo fake death story

There is a term the military uses in their after action reports. They call it "lessons learned."

The basic concept is to review a previous engagement and discuss what was successful, what didn't work and what they need to do better. Basically it is a process designed to ensure that previous mistakes will not be repeated. 

Right now many news sites and MMA sites will be undergoing their own "lessons learned" protocols. 

Yesterday was a bad day for on-line journalism and media as a faulty forum post on the Underground ricocheted into a full blow story about the "death" of Kimo Leopoldo. In fact Kimo is alive and well and was sleeping during much of the Internet wild fire.  

Sadly this is a case of a exponential infection of a viral story. 

Such an infection begins with one site innocently linking the story and stating that it is unconfirmed rumored. Then a different site links the first stating that Leopoldo is in fact dead as oppose to it being an unconfirmed rumor. Another links the second report because they feel the site is credible. Soon it is on fifteen sites then thirty then a hundred and so forth. In just a few hours the reports of Leopoldo's death was on many prominent mainstream news sites which further spreads the viral story.  

While the Internet and blogosphere will quickly respond with retractions and corrections the event will and should lead to questions and doubts on how such a story gained so much traction and so quickly?

Perhaps if Kimo was not asleep for so long, perhaps if someone knew his whereabouts earlier it would have been revealed that the entire story was untrue far earlier in the infection.  

Despite the unfortunate dissemination of misinformation there was one bright spot within new media, Twitter. 

The ability for professional journalists to voice their doubts and concerns on the story --as well as the periodic updates that they couldn't confirm the story-- helped those that were looking for the truth. 

 Kevin Iole, Mike Chiappeta and Dann Stupp were instrumental in spreading word through Twitter about the serious issues with the story. Their tweets may of helped stem the tide of the rumor. 

Such direct interaction between the reader/fan and the journalists would not be possible without the Internet and social media. Ironic considering that the same environment that created the viral rumor can help debunk it.