Take Precautions When Newsjacking in an Era of Fake News

When I first saw the story a week ago that Meghan Markle and Prince Harry had decided to raise their baby as “gender-fluid,” the first word that came to my mind was newsjacking.

That’s the word invented by PR expert David Meerman Scott that describes the publicity tactic of injecting your commentary quickly into a breaking news story, while it’s still hot. You must be able to act fast, even if it’s after hours or on a weekend.

This Royals story,  I thought, was a perfect newsjacking opportunity for parenting experts, professionals who can give advice on bullying, gender experts and—of course—any parent who has a strong feeling on either side of this controversial topic.

But something didn’t smell right.

The story originated in the Feb. 28 online edition of Vanity Fair. It mentioned just one unnamed and unaccountable “source” that said Harry and Meghan “plan to raise their child with a fluid approach to gender.”

Meghan has been talking to some of her friends about the birth and how she and Harry plan to raise their baby. Her exact word was ‘fluid,’ a source told Vanity Fair.

I did a Google search and found another story that said five of Meghan’s close friends confirmed the rumor. 

I kept searching for information that would explain the difference between gender-neutral and gender-fluid. All I found was this definition of gender-fluid: denoting or relating to a person who does not identify themselves as having a fixed gender.

The story kept popping up everywhere: in the gossip magazines, the British tabloids, on blogs and in such reputable publications as Cosmopolitane, Elle and even Town & Country. 

Vanity Fair reported on February 28 that an unnamed and unaccountable “source” told the online edition of the magazine how Prince Harry and Meghan Markle “plan to raise their child with a fluid approach to gender” (below). That alone was enough for dozens of publications and websites to repeat the claim without verifying with Kensington Palace’s media relations office whether or not it was true. Most legitimate journalists and organizations won’t run with a story unless they have two independent sources confirming the same information and ideally on-the-record.