But I don't think the story qualified as news. If there is evidence that terrorists plan to descend on the city, by all means publish the story. If journalists believe that hordes of troublemakers have been mobilized, run it at 6 and again at 11. But there was not an iota of substance to the story about the handbills. By publishing it, the media became the tools of the hoaxster and multiplied his mischief.
Editors decline to print stories every day because they are specious or irrelevant.
This one was no different. I don't see how. Competition is valuable to jourualism when it makes reporters more energetic and aggressive in ferreting out the news. But when it is used as an excuse to abandon sound news judgment, consumers of the news are poorer for it. The Newsletter On Journalism Ethics, vol.