#MH17 (Photos) Why did the New York Times POST a PICTURE of a wreckage victim? #HNNAfrica

Reporters arriving at the scene near the town of Grabovo described dozens of lifeless bodies, mostly intact, in a wheat field with purple flowers, with pieces of the plane scattered across a road lined with fire engines and emergency vehicles. One passenger in a black sweater lay on her back, with blood streaming down her face and her left arm raised.

Breaking news, of course, moves quickly. Real-time reporting tools speed it along. News organizations have developed, in fairly short order, standards for navigating this newfound swiftness. We know to verify facts before publishing them. We know to source on-the-ground images to combat hoaxes. We know that getting it first is not as important as getting it right. The press criticism show On the Media recently published a guide to breaking news. It included nine points, one of which was this: "In the immediate aftermath, news outlets will get it wrong."

This is true. It's true when it comes to reporting. It's also true, though, when it comes to ethics—when it comes to the question of what readers actually need to know and see about unfolding tragedies. The bomb, exploding? The corpse, mutilated? The people falling from the towers? There is a fine line, always, between journalism and sensationalism. And the higher the speed, in general, the higher the stakes.

The New York Times have since replaced the image with that of the wreckage and made corrections to the information rushed as the story broke. 

Correction: July 17, 2014

An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of Ukraine’s president. He is Petro O. Poroshenko, not Poroschenko.
Correction: July 17, 2014

An earlier version of this article misstated the title of Najib Razak. He is the prime minister, not president, of Malaysia. The article also misstated the direction a Siberian Airlines passenger jet was flying before it was shot down by Ukraine in 2001. It was flying from Israel, not to it.

Neil MacFarquhar and David M. Herszenhorn reported from Moscow, and Rick Gladstone from New York. Reporting was contributed by Sabrina Tavernise and Noah Sneider from Donetsk, Ukraine, Andrew E. Kramer from Moscow, Michael D. Shear from Washington, Thomas Erdbrink from Amsterdam, and C.J. Chivers from the United States.

KOO

With files from The Atlantic