Reply #28: No professional news source published the Rove indictment story

[demobabe]

For Truthout to publish it, and then defend it to the death was at minimum a gross lapse in judgment. I actually think Mark Ash is more to blame than Leopold for the whole fiasco.

Jason has some serious incidents in his recent journalism past (regardless if they're right, wrong, or even if those publications were actively trashing Jason), and it was Ash's duty to be extra careful with Leopold. Truthout's lost reputation can be put squarely on Mark Ash's shoulders. Period.

No professional editor in the world allowed the Rove story to run for the simple reason it could not be verified. It isn't news if it can't be verified. It's rumor. Possibly opinion at best. But this is what separates professional publications from non-professional rags or rumor mills...

Think of it this way: would you use the National Enquirer as your primary news source? Why not?

This doesn't mean that every article Truthout writes is problematic, it just puts them in the category of having to question every story they write because of past reputation problems.

Sure, everyone makes mistakes, but that's what retractions are for, and Truthout never fully retracted the Rove stories. Can they be trusted as a news source? Google doesn't think so. Google had included Truthout as a news source in their news site until the Rove indictment stories. Then they abruptly pulled Truthout, and they've never added them back.

For comparison, Google considers Raw Story a news source and includes them in their news search.

Your reputation is all you have as a news source... when you lose it, it's near impossible to get back.