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Comedian/Commentator Bill Maher has noted how even top papers like the NY Times / Washington Post will use some random Twitter post as the basis for a story. T
by jimmydddd 3y ago
Comedian/Commentator Bill Maher has noted how even top papers like the NY Times / Washington Post will use some random Twitter post as the basis for a story. They would never consider it legit if "some guy Bob at the bar" said something, but if Bob@Twitter posts it, they feel comfortable reporting on it as "news."
- rickdeckard 3y agoThis might be true, but at least those outlets are mainly known for investigative pieces. I would be much more disappointed with them if they would post such an article only consisting of "and then user xx said yy", "forum user aa commented bb", without any deeper investigation. Maybe someone there is already working on a larger piece, it just takes more time than copy/paste from some social media posts...
- JohnBooty 3y agoThis smells like an offhand/joke comment that you're taking as fact. Can you link me to a single instance of NYT/WaPo basing a story off of unverified Twitter posts? I read a lot of news, including NYT, and I've never seen this... I've seen them referencing Twitter posts, but not basing a story solely off of them as some kind of sole source. (But of course, it's not like any individual human being could read even 1% of the NYT's total output...) Number two, it's worth noting that Maher is visibly high/intoxicated during his podcasts. Not shaming those activities but uhhhhhhh... I would not rank anybody's stoned rambling thoughts (including my own) after a joint and two martinis very highly on the credibility scale.