A producer at ABC for 15 years, Lipton lays some of the blame on shrinking news budgets that reduce the reporter pool even as the craving for more extreme stories grows. I don't like what it bodes for journalism in general. A CNN spokesman says that after being duped on the Solomon story, the network is evaluating its fact-gathering process to make sure it never happens again. Paul Friedman, a vice-president at ABC News, was once the victim of a hoax perpetrated by Christopher Buckley, who edits a magazine called Forbes FYI . Five years later, Friedman still considers that prank less than constructive, but even he concedes there might a lesson in all this.
Some journalists do cut corners on their way to what seems like a hot story.
Echoing Lipton, he points out that researchers are often the first casualties of budget cuts. Rob Walker is a New York-based writer. All rights reserved.