The issue isn't what hoops you should jump through before you publish a story. It's what you as a reporter need to do to serve your reader best — period. You h

The issue isn't what hoops you should jump through before you publish a story. It's what you as a reporter need to do to serve your reader best — period. You have to distinguish between reporters who should be out in the field — political and crime beat reporters, for example — and those whose field actually is their desk. There's no reason for many of the reporters at Mashable and TechCrunch to leave their desks. They're writing about hardware and software. They need to be there to test and use the tools in order to write about them. How is visiting a grieving mother going to help with that? There's something else about technology reporting that people should keep in mind before they criticize: The industry is secretive. Except when you have access to inside, quasi-legal/ethical/reliable information sources, you as a reporter have no way of knowing the news until the company or researcher is ready to reveal it to you. That usually coincides with a press release, but that doesn't mean the work is merely regurgitating a press release. Every story means learning the tool; having the ability to learn quickly is not a negative. It's the result of an inquisitive, focused, interested mind capable of grasping the arcane and translating that into something meaningful for people who are counting on you to help them get their work done. I'm a tech reporter and a subject matter expert in a few specialized areas. I would put my expertise against anybody in my field, and I'm certainly more knowledgeable than the PR people who put out corporate releases rife with technical inaccuracies. I didn't get this way by chatting up CEOs or interviewing the man on the street. I got this way by setting up my autism station and plugging away at it day and night, weekday and weekend, holiday or no holiday, asking questions of engineers when I stumble, then writing about what I learned in a way that people can understand. My readers benefit from that. That's what matters.