A basic principle of journalism.is to verify.
"The
reporter's job is not to simply dump as much information as possible
into the public domain. It is to gather information, sift through it,
and determine what is true and what is not."
David Graham of The Atlantic
US President-elect Donald Trump clashed with CNN reporter Jim Acosta, repeatedly denying him a question and eventually telling him: "You are fake news"US President-elect Donald Trump clashed with CNN reporter Jim Acosta, repeatedly denying him a question and eventually telling him: "You are fake news" (AFP
The reporter's job is to gather information, sift through it, and determine what is true and what is not.
Two media outfits -- BuzzFeed and CNN -- were singled out by Donald Trump who publicly attacked both as purveyors of "fake news" in connection with the report.
CNN
was first to report that Trump had been briefed on the existence of a
dossier circulating in US political circles, that alleged Russian
possessed compromising information about him.
The cable network declined to give details of the unverified allegations, but BuzzFeed took the controversial step of publishing the 35-page dossier in full -- complete with salacious references to alleged sex tapes involving Trump and Russian prostitutes.
Several US media published limited descriptions of the report's contents -- while making clear, as did BuzzFeed, that they were unverified, and possibly unverifiable.
"I think it was incredibly irresponsible." said Dan Kennedy, a journalism professor
Kennedy
called it "unfortunate" that the actions of one media outfit --
BuzzFeed -- stood to further erode public trust in media, after a
bruising campaign in which news organizations were pilloried by Trump
and during which "fake news" became an issue.
One of the largest online news sites, BuzzFeed defended its decision to publish the 35-page document, compiled by a former British intelligence operative hired by other US presidential contenders to do political "opposition research" on Trump last year.
BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith said his goal was "to be transparent in our journalism and to share what we have with our readers," while noting that "the document was in wide circulation at the highest levels of American government and media."
"It is unverified -- meaning that it requires further investigation," Wemple wrote.
David Graham of The Atlantic said BuzzFeed "sidestepped a basic principle of journalism."
The release "unfairly forces a public figure -- Trump, in this case -- to respond to a set of allegations that might or might not be entirely scurrilous," Graham wrote.
"The
reporter's job is not to simply dump as much information as possible
into the public domain... It is to gather information, sift through it,
and determine what is true and what is not."
"Transparent transmission of misinformation is no more helpful or clarifying than no information at all."
At a news conference Wednesday, Trump called the dossier's release "disgraceful," training his fire intelligence agencies who he suggested may have leaked it -- and on the media.
Trump
reserved his harshest words for BuzzFeed, a site that uses analytics to
understand how news goes viral and drew some 185 million visitors last
month.
"As
far as BuzzFeed, which is a failing pile of garbage, writing it, I
think they're going to suffer the consequences," Trump warned.
He also assailed CNN for breaking the initial story, accusing them of "going out of their way to build it up."
The
president-elect then clashed with CNN reporter Jim Acosta, repeatedly
denying him a question and eventually telling him: "You are fake news."
The
cable network later pushed back in a statement, saying: "CNN's decision
to publish carefully sourced reporting about the operations of our
government is vastly different than BuzzFeed's decision to publish
unsubstantiated memos."
- 'Kudos' to BuzzFeed -
Not all the reaction was negative.
Source: https://www.yahoo.com/tech/media-firestorm-over-trump-russia-report-publication-160700882.html
No comments:
Post a Comment