Why it matters: It's the third indictment in special counsel John Durham's investigation into the origins of the Russia probe and possible misconduct by U.S. On the other hand, if it is not fake news then that is even more troubling.Igor Danchenko, an analyst hired to compile key parts of the infamous Steele dossier of alleged ties between Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and Russia, was charged with five counts of lying to the FBI on Thursday, according to an unsealed indictment. If, in this case, Trump is the innocent victim of “fake news” he has no one to blame but himself. A list of Trump lies would take up this entire article but suffice to say that, according to some estimates, during the three presidential debates with Hillary Clinton he lied on average once every 50 seconds. This from, if not the founder, then one of the best exponents and major beneficiaries of the genre. It all would be deliciously amusing if these matters were not so important – for Trump describes the reports as “fake news”. As I said at the beginning, it all comes down to judgement. So, at this stage, the only verification comes from unnamed intelligence sources – would those be the same sources that told us about WMD in Iraq for example? We need intelligence services, but we should not trust them as unimpeachable sources whose information can be reported without verification. Buzzfeed admits they are unverified and that they think there is reason to doubt them. Having noted all this, I remain unconvinced that the allegations should have been published. It was the same with the New York Times, though it has made the curious reader go through a more circuitous route, having to first click through to the CNN International site which then gave the link to Buzzfeed and the document. Now Buzzfeed might be a relatively upstart in the news game but over the past couple of years it has demonstrated that it is a reliable and robust news source – despite the listicles, the pet cats and the “funny” videos.īut Buzzfeed did much the same thing in its story as The Guardian, not giving many details about the content but helpfully providing a link to a PDF of the full document, with the key passages highlighted (by whom?). In its story, it goes into great detail about who knew what and when, but the piece reveals little of the content of the report.īut it does, very helpfully, provide a link to the news website Buzzfeed. I read the full 35-page dossier thanks to The Guardian. If, on the other hand, a junior backbencher with whom I have had no previous contact had sidled up to me and whispered the same information into my ear, then I sure as hell would have wanted verification.Īre they right? Well, up to a point, although there is a large whiff of “having cake and eating it” (as Britain’s foreign secretary is wont to say) about the legacy media’s treatment of the story. Even if the information comes from a “source”, if that source is reliable and had proved so in the past – for example, Alastair Campbell speaking on behalf of Tony Blair – then that too would require no further verification. If I receive a press release from Downing Street telling me that the prime minister has resigned, I do not need verification to put that story out (as long as I am sure of the provenance of the release). In the past, I have conducted training courses in developing countries with American colleagues and I often used to wince as I heard them say, as if it were an unbreakable rule, that journalists should not publish anything that hadn’t been verified by two independent sources. But alas, it is not as simple as that and, like so much else in journalism, it all comes down to the professional judgement of the individual journalist. Verification is a major issue for journalists the American Press Institute, for example, talks about journalism as a “ discipline of verification”. To verify, or not to verify? That is the question that journalists face on an almost daily basis but the issue of whether media organisations should publish information that isn’t 100% watertight has been brought into sharp relief by the latest stories about Donald Trump and his alleged involvement with Russia.
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