Jimmy Breslin, Mike Royko, Molly Ivins and Herb Caen. He was less thrilled with the way newspapers are handling today's news. By retailing rumors and with unnamed single-source stories, newspapers give readers no framework for credibility. Now, we get screaming stories built on nothing more than, 'sources said'. Newspapers are undermining their function by trying to play TV's game, Hamill said.
TV puts a lot of reporters under pressure to be first with the news.
So they go on the air, 'with their notes', without making the verifying phone calls or checking earlier facts in the news clips. The function of a newspaper is to verify what people have already heard. And readers have to believe that it's accurate. Hamill feels strongly about newspaper integrity. It cost him.