Reuters first with news of hip-hop star’s exclusion from Haiti election

Reuters was more than 24 hours ahead with news from Haiti on Aug. 19 that U.S.-based Haitian hip-hop star Wyclef Jean was excluded by Haiti’s electoral authority from standing in a Nov. 28 presidential election in the earthquake-ravaged country. Reuters learned from a senior member of the electoral council that Jean would not make the final candidates list because he did not meet legal requirements. International interest in Jean’s candidacy was already high because of his celebrity status and the post-quake focus on Haiti, our story had an immediate and huge media impact. Reuters was credited/mentioned in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Miami Herald, New York Daily News, CBS, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, People, MTV, and NME. The story also played massively in entertainment web sites. Our competitors could not match us for more than 24 hours and even Wyclef Jean, with apparently no firm information himself, was obliged to issue a faltering denial of what he called “a rumor on Reuters”. The scoop was proved right the following day when Haiti’s electoral council confirmed the hip-hop star had not made the candidates cut. We were also ahead on that formal announcement.