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February 7, 2005
Verification: It's basic...
Let's get Monday off to a good start with a quote from page 59 of Telling the Story--the basic reporting textbook I use for JRN270 Introduction to Journalism:
When someone important says something important but perhaps false, just putting the material in quotes does not relieve you of responsibility for the inaccuracies. Citizens, officials and candidates for office often say things that may be partially true or altogether untrue and perhaps even libelous. Quotations, like any other information you gather, need verification.
If America's political journalists followed this basic instruction of reporting, much horse-race coverage of elections would cease to exist.
Senator Blowhard says X. Senator Numnutz says Y. Now, get the facts, verify, and then tell us whose account conforms to a reasonable understanding of the facts. (I've just made that process theoretically more simple than it really is. But over-simplification is necessary to make my point.)
Something disconnects between introductory classes and professional practice that makes the process above appear to violate the professional ethic of fairness. Part of that disconnect may have to do with the wholesale professional confusion about objectivity.
Posted by acline at February 7, 2005 9:45 AM | | Spotlight