We are seeing an interesting case study in journalism today on a high profile but low stakes story. ESPN, citing anonymous sources, reported that Tom Brady is retiring, and multiple outlets picked it up and ran with it. The AP is now reporting that Brady has called the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to say he is far from making up his mind. I have seen a Tweet where an ESPN reporter says Brady is retiring, but has not made up his mind about when to announce.
It looks like Brady is retiring, and someone close to him spilled the beans too soon, and now they are trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube so Brady can make his own dramatic announcement. It’s not really a big deal either way, but it illustrates the danger of basing big stories on anonymous sources. ESPN did use the plural, so I assume there was more than one. I think there is a place for anonymous sourcing, but in the days when news organizations cared about their credibility and reputation for accuracy, they would have probably waited longer, not quicker to report if relying on anonymous sources to get additional confirmation. https://apnews.com/article/tom-brady-retirement-reports-8ec48cdfdcc5f0dd4650b0572dd15252 -- Sent from Gmail Mobile -- 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/CAKGtkYJFR49_attJ1BLHynYy%2BiWLkc71%3Dvtac08-0RaWvZs8Tg%40mail.gmail.com.
