Music

Music journalist accidentally publishes placeholder-filled Rihanna “review”

by Tyler Munro

First, a little insider information: Sometimes journalists take shortcuts. Whether it’s typing in shorthand or leaving blanks, it’s often easier to get the meat of your writing done quickly so you can swap the details in later. The thing is, those drafts aren’t really meant for public consumption.

Which, if you’re Mic writer Chris Riotta, led to a very real, very silly situation late last week, when his story on Rihanna’s new album, Anti, went live before he’d actually written it.

Or, y’know, heard it.

Screencapped in full below, Riotta’s review was filed through Mic to Yahoo! with half-written descriptors, prompting him to delete parts of sentences, write in lyrics, hyperlink to Rap Genius and name “relevant” songs from Anti that match his descriptions.

No doubt feeling the wrath of “music is dead” truths, Riotta was quick to respond with a shrug. As he says, shit happens.

But it does beg a bigger question — it’s easy to blame a writer on a deadline who says he was trying to rush out a breaking news story, and whether or not we buy that, it’s interesting that this made it through the editorial process. And at a time when we’re quick to lament the death of good music writing, it’s easy to overlook the lack of good music editing. Or, like, any editing at all. Should Riotta have filed an under-written piece? Nah. But it shouldn’t have been published, either.

Here’s his, er, review, in “full”.

The post has obviously since been taken down.