Journalistic sources - 07/28/03 01:46 AM
This is only vaguely fanfic-related, so forgive me if people think it belongs in Off Topic.
In the UK right now, there's a biggish story in the news involving a clash between the BBC and the government (or more precisely, the Prime Minister's office). It revolves around a story a reporter from the BBC wrote about an important dossier which was partly instrumental in convincing parliament to go to war in Iraq. The story claims the dossier was artificially beefed up (the popular phrase is 'sexed up') to make the arguments for war more compelling.
Now, what has surprised me in the whole charade is that the BBC reporter used a single (anonymous) source for his story. The BBC have defended him, saying that this is quite acceptable within current BBC policy.
I always thought that reporters were taught to get more than one source for a story; that this was considered essential, particularly if the story was potentially very contraversial.
Can anyone enlighten me? Am I wrong? And if L&C were writing this story for Perry, would he accept a single source?
Yvonne
In the UK right now, there's a biggish story in the news involving a clash between the BBC and the government (or more precisely, the Prime Minister's office). It revolves around a story a reporter from the BBC wrote about an important dossier which was partly instrumental in convincing parliament to go to war in Iraq. The story claims the dossier was artificially beefed up (the popular phrase is 'sexed up') to make the arguments for war more compelling.
Now, what has surprised me in the whole charade is that the BBC reporter used a single (anonymous) source for his story. The BBC have defended him, saying that this is quite acceptable within current BBC policy.
I always thought that reporters were taught to get more than one source for a story; that this was considered essential, particularly if the story was potentially very contraversial.
Can anyone enlighten me? Am I wrong? And if L&C were writing this story for Perry, would he accept a single source?
Yvonne