> How do you know that person is not sitting in the same newsroom? Or the next one?
You don't but the "person on Twitter said XYZ" at least has a (flimsy) verification test attached to it - search on Twitter, see if you find it. Now, sure, maybe Fred from the next office over posted it after they concocted the story at lunch but the timestamp and age of the account betrays that. Also if it's an egg avatar or has a name like 'madeup9384874'.
No, it's not perfect but at least there is -some- way of potentially verifying that someone, not the reporter, said this.
You don't but the "person on Twitter said XYZ" at least has a (flimsy) verification test attached to it - search on Twitter, see if you find it. Now, sure, maybe Fred from the next office over posted it after they concocted the story at lunch but the timestamp and age of the account betrays that. Also if it's an egg avatar or has a name like 'madeup9384874'.
No, it's not perfect but at least there is -some- way of potentially verifying that someone, not the reporter, said this.
reply