Those fabrications

I’m still trying to figure out what to think of the raft of fabrication scandals we keep having.

I wonder how many reporters have made up quotes or invented sources. The temptation must be powerful. Think of it, you’re 20 minutes from deadline and a quote that you know somebody would say is unavailable, but it makes your story complete. How many have given in?

It’s like breaking the speed limit: no harm done if there are no cops around and you don’t crash into anything.

Then you get away with it. Then you do it again and get away with it again. It could happen over the course of years, even decades.

This strikes me as one of those dirty secrets none would ever admit unless cornered. Has everybody done it? I haven’t a clue, but I can’t help thinking the answer is yes.

This opens a huge can o’ worms for editors, because we can’t cast a jaundiced eye on every quote and insist it be verified. We’d never get any work done.

You’d think by now that the Internet would’ve sufficiently scared the liars into reverting to safe environs of the truth, but the thing about criminals is they always assume they’ll never get caught. Getting away with their crimes encourages them to keep doing it.

But we need to be careful about assuming a source doesn’t exist just because he/she can’t be found.

Back when i was in college, I attended a huge civil rights march in Georgia. I saw a reporter walking from one person to the next, scribbling down quotes and hurrying on his way. Could any of those people be found again, if his editors got nosy? I wonder.

We’re stuck with this thing called trust which is always tenuous. But it serves us well, except when it doesn’t.