When you send entire stories to sources, you get no greater benefit than from reading aloud/emailing/texting the relevant portions to them, but they get the benefit of seeing what might be inside information they hadn’t known before and then massaging their responses accordingly, i.e., covering their own asses. You would then ethically be compelled to provide the same consideration to *all* the sources in the story, at which point you’ve surrendered all journalistic integrity.
Even giving the journalist benefit of the doubt, sending an entire story to a source is just lazy. > On Oct 14, 2021, at 5:05 PM, Doug Fields <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Maybe it’s just my lack of formal journalism training, but I fail to see what > all the fuss is about. Are people confusing the fact that Bruce Allen was a > source for Schefter’s story, and misconstruing him as the *subject* of the > story? I see nothing wrong with consulting with somebody you used as a > source and reconfirming that you’re quoting him accurately and making sure > you’re correctly reporting some complicated aspect of the story from his > perspective. Let him see the complete story? Sure, why not?…you wouldn’t be > *required* to use his follow-up input…it’s just a courtesy call, to make sure > you’ve got your story straight. > > And even if he had been the subject, just about every big journalism movie > has that scene where the reporter calls the Senator whose life is about to > become front-page news, asking him if he has any comment on the story that’s > “gonna hit the papers tomorrow morning.” Again, unless there’s some sort of > editorial approval deal in place, I still wouldn’t see an ethical problem > with giving him an advance copy of the story just so you can append the usual > “No comment” to the end of it. > > Doug Fields > Tampa, FL > > > From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of > Steve Timko > Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2021 11:36 AM > To: TV or Not TV <[email protected]> > Subject: [TV orNotTV] ESPN’s Adam Schefter crosses a journalistic line > > Take a look at this story from the Poynter Institute > https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2021/espns-adam-schefter-crosses-a-journalistic-line/ > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAH5J8yzwXp8QQkLN9Bwn%2BfLg8%2B4OD-TTxN5tix3bjvgPUBGnWw%40mail.gmail.com. > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/BN6PR14MB161932F1AC3C4FC651A23B6BC6B89%40BN6PR14MB1619.namprd14.prod.outlook.com. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/3EBD3991-B326-4570-93FD-658A21E7BF6D%40gmail.com.
