In the face of criticism, Don Melvin, the CNN reporter who wrote a poorly-sourced story alleging that Israeli settlers chopped down 800 olive trees, doubled–down on Twitter.
But absent any independent verification on Melvin’s part, his report is yet another example of what media wonks refer to as the “journalism of assertion.” That’s the idea that in an age of faster and faster news cycles, reporters can ease up on verification if they merely attribute their sources.
For Melvin, that would be the Wafa News Agency, which is the official news service of the Palestinian Authority, whose activities are directly regulated by Mahmoud Abbas. To give you an idea of Wafa’s journalistic standards, it labeled last year’s Jerusalem synagogue terrorists as “Islamic martyrs.”
Although Wafa didn’t identify any sources or eyewitnesses by name, as long as Melvin can “attribute facts” to Wafa, he’s on safe journalistic ground, right?
Not so fast. Here’s how media wonks Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel articulated the shortcomings of the journalism of assertion:
The second implication is that this neutral voice, without a discipline of verification, creates a veneer covering something hollow. Journalists who select sources to express what is really their own point of view, and then use the neutral voice to make it seem objective, are engaged in a form of deception. This damages the credibility of the whole profession by making it seem unprincipled, dishonest, and biased. This is an important caution in an age when the standards of the press are so in doubt.
If Melvin isn’t vetting his sources, fact-checking his stories, or being transparent with readers, what use is he to CNN? Or to us?
Featured image: CC BY flickr/Charles Atkeison with additions by HonestReporting
