They did a sloppy job. We make errors and do sloppy work every day. Most sloppy stories, however, aren t as high profile, he said. There are a lot of people who tell us stuff that s bullshit. As long as we attribute it, we think it s OK to put it in the paper.
Editors don t challenge writers enough about how they know what they know.
Not just how did the writer get it, but how did the source get it. They make a lot of enemies. They cover wide-ranging subject areas and often cover people not as well known as people in politics. Especially young reporters need to be reminded that the only thing we have to sell is credibility. Once that s gone, we re out of business as an individual and a newspaper.