A few snippets from the new PBS program AIR: America’s Investigative Reports illustrate the difference between real reporting and the journalistic stenography that tries to pass as reporting:
Bryan Lonegan, Immigration Attorney:
He [NPR investigative reporter Daniel Zwerdling] didn’t believe anything I said until I proved it to him. If I said something happened, then I’d better be able to prove that, either with documents or a witness. And then, wouldn’t you know, he’d go back and check with that witness to make sure.
…
I deal with a lot of journalists. Invariably, they call me up; they say “I’m doing a story on XYZ, what do you think?” I give them three or four sentences of, you know, a sound bite or a nice pithy quote to put in a story, and then they call up the government and they get a counterpoint. And so you have point, counterpoint: Bryan Lonegan says this, the government says that. There’s your story.
Daniel Zwerdling, Reporter:
That doesn’t do anybody a service, because we’re all bombarded with different points of view that all have equal weight. Well, every point of view does not have equal weight. Lies should not get the same amount of weight as the truth.
Opinions are not facts. Facts are not opinions. Facts are susceptible to test and verification. But that’s a lot of work, and in the 24-hour news cycle, too many so-called reporters have decided it’s easier to treat facts and opinion as interchangeable.
No wonder the Bush administration ridicules the reality-based community.
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