What We Can Learn From the Lil Tay Media Faceplant

Social media has warped journalism's incentive system. Accuracy, not speed, needs to once again become the priority for news outlets.

Hello, readers. Happy Friday. Let’s talk about journalism.

On Wednesday, news broke that a young¹ internet personality named Lil Tay had died. News outlets rushed to publish stories and post on social media with headlines like, “Lil Tay, rapper and social media star, dies at 14” (ABC News) and “Lil Tay, Teen Internet Rapper, Has Died” (Variety).

There was …