Bad News by Mark Pack

Author:Mark Pack
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Biteback Publishing
Published: 2020-05-29T16:00:00+00:00

INSIDERS ARE NOT ALWAYS EXPERTS

It is easy to fall into the trap of believing that the inside source really does know what they are talking about. Sometimes, of course, this is the case; even an anonymous source within a company can be a good basis for a story about, say, how the sales of its flagship product are really doing. From this, you can work out that the truth probably is known to people in the company, and hence such a source has the potential to ground a story on rock-solid foundations.

But there are many other examples in which the insider is not a sure guide to the truth because the evidence does not rest within their organisation. News about military conflicts, for example, often falls into this category. Sources inside the armed forces may have access to reliable information about the number of civilians killed in a recent air raid which makes for just the sort of scoop that gives journalism a good name and a key role in society. Yet, at other times, those well-connected senior military sources may be clueless (or perhaps even self-deluded) about what is really going on in the rural wilds of a country in which they have militarily intervened. Seeing events through their eyes does not give us the truth, for all that ‘Pentagon sources’ and the like may sound impressive.

This was strikingly illustrated in the US media’s reporting of events in Iraq preceding the 2003 invasion. Stories apparently well sourced to relevant and senior figures in the military regarding the presence of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in Iraq turned out to be massively wrong, because those sources were themselves distant from and badly informed about the truth.11

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