Last week, we all read and/or watched the story of Manti Te’0 unfold. Drama at its best!
A couple of journalism sites wrote about the incident from a journalism point of view, including the Nieman Lab, Poynter Institute, and American Journalism Review.
Steve Buttry makes a powerful argument on his blog, the Buttry Diary, for linking in articles. It can be boiled down simply. If reporters had tried to link to the obituary of the deceased girlfriend he told the world about, they would have found out there was no such woman.
Here is a simple fact I hate to admit. If I’m interviewing someone and they tell me their loved one passed away, I’m probably not going to verify it. But maybe I should. Everyone makes assumptions about something, and I think most people make the assumption that one would be honest about girlfriends who died (or didn’t exist, in this case).
Buttry points out something very important for journalists to remember. There are two tired little sayings that can keep you out of trouble. To quote Buttry’s blog, first, if your mother says she loves you, check it out. Second, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
For a journalist, they are words to live by and advice I intend to give our reporters.
Follow clay @clay_morgan.