Fact, fiction and someone with an agenda

3 comments September 16th, 2009

Last week we got a so-called “tip” on a news story about another conflict between Faith Center and Legacy, the charter school. The tipster wouldn’t give us the information unless we promised him anonoymity. We said no, and then we filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the information because it was public record.

We eventually got the information we needed — on the record and with no agreement of confidentiality — and we published a story. Our story appeared after the television stations broadcast their versions.

I guess the tipster didn’t like our “no,” so he shopped his tip elsewhere. We don’t use confidential sources as the single source for a news story. I cannot remember a time since 1991 when we have used a single anonymous source as the foundation for publishing.

And, when the demand to be confidential comes, I have to know who the source is. Period. We don’t take the information and we certainly don’t publish it unless I know the source and, in some cases, I will have met with him or her. In the situation last week, I figured out pretty quickly who the source was and said “absolutely not.” We’re not here to be manipulated or have the news manipulated by sources like that one. We’ll do our own reporting — on the record. It’s best to get it right and get it first. But if I must choose between right and first, I’ll take right every time.

It’s your choice whom you believe. But there’s a lot of junk floating out there these days that’s passing itself off as fact. You might want to do as we do — consider the source — before you decide to believe.

Here are a handful of links to other stories this past week or so in which separating fact from fiction from agenda was the order of the day. Why would journalists make up news? How many WERE at the tea party? Was CNN right about the gun shots?