Well-known people often complain about inaccurate media reports, although they’ve lacked a forum to air these grievances.
With that in mind, Hong Kong-born entrepreneur Sir David Tang has launched a new website that will offer named-and-shamed celebrities the opportunity to set the record straight.
ICorrect.com offers organisations and people in the public eye the chance to challenge and respond in person to what they view as misinformation circulating about them in the media.
The site already includes posts from Cherie Blair, Stephen Fry, Sir John Bond, Jemima Khan, Sienna Miller, Zac Goldsmith, Niall Ferguson and Naomi Campbell.
Tang says in the last 20 years, we have created a cyber world so that we have information at our fingertips, but 99% of it is hearsay.
“If you Google anybody, you will get Wikipedia or 24 pages of search, and they are all about somebody writing or commenting on somebody else,” Tang says.
Tang says his website aims to give those in the public eye a platform to counter what they regard as lies, misinformation and misrepresentations. Eventually, ICorrect could also allow people and companies to make official apologies.
The site’s pages offer the source and original accusation on one side, with the correction on the other. The entries range in style from comic to serious.
ICorrect is free to view but celebrities and politicians seeking to post corrections will pay $1,000 a year while companies will be charged $5,000 a year.
Traditional media publishers are grappling with how to monetise their online offering, as witnessed last week by the New York Times’ decision to erect a paywall to its content. But are there other content niches, in the same vein as ICorrect.com, that you could you charge for in order to build a sustainable business?
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