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Reuters: J'Accuse

Submitted March 21, 2004 - 10:40 pm by Al Giordano
Wire services should forbid "reports" without bylines, because it shields liars from accountability.

We have just reported five exit polls here on The Narcosphere on the elections in El Salvador. Three of those polls (one university, one radio association, and one Commercial TV station) say the leftwing FMLN won. Two polls (one commercial TV station, one university) say the rightwing ARENA won.

But Reuters just reported:

Television exit polls showed Saca (ARENA) ahead of Handal (FMLN)...

Note the use of "exit polls," plural, and it is clear: REUTERS IS MAKING IT UP!

It is not true and, by definition, cannot possibly be true.

In any authentic news organization, a correction would be published immediately, heads would roll, careers would end.

But anonymous reports on Reuters (like AP) instead get repeated by a thousand newspapers before the truth can put its pants on.

Somebody at Reuters deserves a punch in the nose, and especially the manager that let that one past the goalie.

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