Eric replies to me:
Luke:
No attempt was made to lecture. I have no way of knowing if the Mayor had sex with anyone. I do not know if the Mayor impregnated anyone. The Mayor and Sabrina Kay could be lying. I don’t know. But until I have some kind of independent corroboration, or one of the parties admits it’s true, I can’t put that on the air.
Blogs can put rumors into print, and they do. Sometimes the rumors turn out to be true, and it’s a big scoop. Sometimes they are not. Do you disagree?
My work is certainly not free of mistakes. But I don’t think publishing stories about people without verifying them is good journalism. We also need to ask "What if the Mayor and Sabrina Kay are telling the truth? What if there is no relationship between them?" If I’ve broadcast that rumor and it’s not true, I’ve damaged their reputations. That’s the difference between the MSM, as you put it, and the blogs. Some bloggers post things without even trying to find out if they are true. How do you justify that?
Don’t get me wrong. I’m a big fan of blogs. I read them all the time, and as I’ve said, your blog in particular played a giant role in breaking this story wide open… Blogs can be a great source of information. But I know if I get something wrong on the air, I’ll be fired. That makes me extremely careful about making mistakes. Can you say the same for all bloggers?
I reply:
Some bloggers are reliable and ethical and some are not, just like some mainstream journalists are reliable and ethical and some are not.
Blogs and MSM journalists can put rumors into print. There’s no difference in that capacity. Look at the weapons of mass destruction fiasco. The New York Times etc put false rumors into print that Iraq was full of them. How many MSM journalists lost their jobs over that? That may be the most significant story of the past six years, the MSM got it completely wrong, and despite all the handwringing almost nobody in the MSM lost their job over it.
You ask: "What if there is no relationship between them [the mayor and Sabrina Kay]?"
Well, we know there is a relationship between them. They’re quite chummy. Just look at the pictures and read about her fashion show that the mayor modeled in. How did someone with no qualifications in planning become a planning commissioner?
What we don’t know yet is if their relationship has ever been sexual.
A blog is simply a delivery device. I no more try to justify all people who use blogs than I try to justify all people who use cell phones. Some people use cell phones for ends true and good and other people use cell phones to make drug deals.
Bloggers who post things without fact-checking don’t develop credibility and hence readership. They have no traction. We wouldn’t even talk about them if they hadn’t hit a few stories out of the park.
You write: "I know if I get something wrong on the air, I’ll be fired."
I am sure that you and every one of your peers at KTLA has put out wrong information on the air. It’s inevitable. If you and your station, like the LA Times, put out in early February that the mayor said his marriage was fine, you are technically just reporting the mayor’s false statement, but you are still putting wrong information on the air.
It would take a huge mistake to get you fired. You’d have to demonstrate a malicious and willful disregard for the truth. Can you even name the last time one of your TV reporter peers in Los Angeles got fired for making a mistake? I bet it hasn’t happened more than once or twice a year.
Anyway, I get what you’re saying and you get what I’m saying.
