Friday, February 22, 2008

All the President's Men? Not quite

If you're still in college, you should not be allowed to graduate until you've seen this movie. And if you work in the news business and haven't seen it, then rent it on your next day off.

Yes, the movie is more than 30 years old, but it still packs a wallop of inspiration and education. More than that, it is a terrific example of two reporters who stopped at nothing while digging for the story the old fashioned way.

Why is this a topic of discussion? Oh, that little article about John McCain in the New York Times.

Regardless of what you think of the Arizona Senator, you can learn a lot from reading Thursday's piece in the Times. As I read this incredibly long article, I kept saying to myself, "Okay, where's the quote from a named source?"

And that made me think of the movie. How Ben Bradlee (played by Jason Robards) insisted on solid sources and attribution before he would print anything that took on the President of the United States.

In today's rush to be first and sensational without necessarily being right, news people have made printing or broadcasting rumors and innuendo quite commonplace, and seemingly acceptable. It is a sad state of affairs when you pick up a newspaper and know that paper's political leanings before you read one word.

The Times article may be true, or it may not. The point is to make sure your story is solid before you bring it to the public. The old saying "never let the facts get in the way of a good story" used to be a news room joke, but now seems to hold more truth to it than ever.

Get your facts, check them, get both sides, then do your story. Journalism 101.

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