Hacker News Reader

I don't think this was anything like that, though.

The story that they were investigating was completely plausible because it painted a very realistic picture of things that were happening in Syria at the time.

I suppose the one part of this that is potentially harmful and false is that the ISIS member was living free in Toronto (while bragging about it on social media).

View on HN

Plausibe is fine to a point. The context here is journalism, and with that comes responsibilities. The fact an outfit as reputable as NYT chose not to fulfill its obligations should give anyone reasonable pause. This was a relatively meaningless story. What happens when something more significant is involed? And the stakes (read: possible revenue) higher?

I suspect your idea of 'very realistic' is from news sources like the NYT and not from actually being to Syria.

As someone who has been to Syria multiple times, I can assure you that US news is much closer to Hollywood than reality.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com