November 26th, 2017 at 5:00 pm 
by Ron Cervenka It’s journalism’s Golden Rule: “It’s better to be right than to be first.”
Unfortunately, in today’s high pressure, got-to-be-first-or-else, social media-driven world, not all journalist are concerned about getting it right. Instead they prefer to be first – even if incorrect – and then do the ever-popular ‘My bad’ thing later … if at all.
At 11:08 a.m. PT, MLB Trade Rumors, a very accurate and reliable source of breaking baseball news, tweeted out that 35-year-old Dodgers outfielder Andre Ethier was going to retire.
“Former Dodgers outfielder Andre Ethier has told family and friends that he is retiring, Robert Murray of FanRag reports,” wrote MLB Trade Rumors’ . “The 35-year-old Ethier had been on the open market since Nov. 5, when the Dodgers declined his $17.5MM [team] option for 2018 in favor of a $2.5MM buyout.”
As you might expect. Murray’s report (through Byrne) generated a flood of comments, replies, and even a few sincere congratulations and best wishes from Dodger fans on Twitter. It also caused several other writers and bloggers to piggyback on Murray’s ‘I-got-it-first’ story instead of waiting for confirmation from a more trusted source. I mean, you’ve got to admit that “…told family and friends” is a bit suspicious, right?
Lo and behold, a little over an hour later at 12:13 p.m. PT, Dodgers beat writer Ken Gurnick – who always gets it right (and quite often first) – tweeted out that Murray’s report (through Byrne) was “totally untrue,” adding that Ethier’s “…back is healthy and that he is preparing to play in 2018.”
Within minutes, MLB Trade Rumor (again through Connor Byrne) did the right thing and immediately tweeted out that the earlier report of Ethier’s retirement was incorrect, and he updated his article accordingly.
Sorry for the delay in reporting this story, but… well… you know.
Posted in 
I hate to say this, but I’m sort of disappointed by this news. It’s just that seeing Ethier in another uniform, is something that will be hard to get use to.
IF Ethier is picked up by another team, it will be in a bench player role. As such, IF he is picked up by another team, you probably won’t see him in another uniform very often.
That being said, I wish he and his family nothing but the very best regardless of what may happen.