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Tips on verifying, debunking and carefully handling rumors
Craig Silverman Journalists and news organizations need to do a better job of avoiding involvement in the spread of lies and unconfirmed rumors. Accuracy and credibility are the heart of good...
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Rolling Stone forgot: Investigative reporting is about discovery, not...
Investigative reporting is about discovery of a story, not confirmation of your notions. That is the key mistake Rolling Stone made in its false, and now retracted, story “A Rape on Campus,” as I read...
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Judith Miller still blames sources for her false reporting
Judith Miller clearly reflected in great detail on her rise to prominence in working on her memoir, The Story: A Reporter’s Journey. She appears to have reflected very little, though, on her failures...
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Jonathan Landay elaborates on Judith Miller’s flawed Iraq reporting
Jonathan Landay I was perhaps not detailed enough in my criticism of Judith Miller’s memoir/fantasy book The Story: A Reporter’s Journey. Jonathan Landay, a Knight-Ridder (now McClatchy) Washington...
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Why are journalists so reluctant to correct and re-examine challenged stories?
I am dismayed by the continuing refusal of respected media companies to re-examine and correct their reporting when confronted with documentation of their errors. I blogged about this problem in...
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Other journalists correct a story the New York Times stubbornly refuses to...
Stubbornness can lead to some outstanding journalism. But it also can cause journalists to stand by stories that need to be corrected or re-examined. I think it’s time to say the New York Times is just...
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Writing for memes, with lots of Ben Carson examples
I was updating some slides for a class on writing for social media last week and wanted to update the memes I used early in the class. When I taught a similar class last spring, I used some Rand Paul...
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New York Times public editor notes need to update matchmaker story
Thanks to New York Times Public Editor Margaret Sullivan for providing the first acknowledgment by anyone at the Times of a fundamentally flawed story I have noted here before. I won’t revisit the saga...
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‘Marie Christmas:’ Some journalists fell for San Bernardino prank; others...
These tweets early in the San Bernardino shooting Wednesday attracted a lot of media attention, including a blog post from me last night and the initial version of this post (most of which will be...
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Einstein’s rejection letter: Journalists must ask skeptical questions
One of journalism’s oldest clichés is that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. I had the desired initial reaction to the letter above, rejecting Albert Einstein for an associate...
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