ABC News’ website is now carrying a weird, poorly written story about Iran weapons in Iraq that does not contain a single reference or source outside of U.S. military sources.
The story, not surprisingly, stenographically repeats and parrots the recent admin. propaganda line.
This, in Journalism 101, is called a “one-source story.” It is the apex of journalistic incompetence.
See also this morning’s front page Boston Globe story.
[Update]Glenn Greenwald is also covering this from the NYTimes weekend journalistic SNAFU perspective and says it well:
Mindlessly passing along anonymous government claims is shoddy journalism, particularly in light of the damage such journalism unleashed on the country prior to the Iraq invasion (and after).
This type of reporting would have gotten me an “F” in sophomore news writing class at UMaine-Orono. What is it doing in our country’s largest newspapers and news networks ?
