Did a Misunderstood Report Cause Facebook Inc (FB) to Fall This Morning?

There’s obviously nothing nefarious about the way AppData collects their statistics, as it’s impossible to measure a sample size in its entirety, but it’s the blogosphere’s reaction to the report that should receive criticism.

Equally as troubling is the fact that other media outlets re-posted the story without considering the flip-side of the argument. Taking a look back at some recent news gaffes over the past few months though, we can see that these issues have occurred before.

Consider the case of Black Friday, when most armchair analysts used analysis done by Piper Jaffray and Gene Munster to claim that Apple dominated Microsoft in tablet sales. There’s no question that this could’ve have happened, but the original report only compiled eight hours of survey data at one particular location.

Now, Munster and his team didn’t draw any overarching conclusions, but many journalists misread this information, automatically assuming that it could be applied to the tech world in its entirety.

And let’s not forget about the fake press release claiming Google paid $400 million for a company with a market cap under $1 million. Obviously, common sense would hold that this could not be possible, but that didn’t stop the majority of news sites (not us, though), from posting the story as certifiable fact.

Both of these scenarios run parallel to the AppData/Instagram coverage that may have hurt Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) today, so the adequate question we must ask is: why aren’t journalists held accountable for misinterpreting data if it has a material effect on a stock’s price?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below, and for more coverage of these issues, continue reading here:

Who Faked The Google Acquisition Story?

Black Friday Recap: Did Apple Really Dominate Microsoft?

Be Careful of This Latest Apple Rumor