Why newsrooms haven't published leaked Trump campaign documents | Hacker News Reader

Why newsrooms haven't published leaked Trump campaign documents

washingtonpost.com

5 pointsnabla98 comments

My criteria for publishing docs:

Is this something the public should have already know about?

This is a legitimate, reasonable way to assess whether a document should be published or not. However, it's also a very potent method to stir up shit and cause inadvertent social crises rather than scrutinise power in all its forms and inform the public, which are arguably the main roles of journalism.

Whether it’s Twitter censoring the Hunter Biden Laptop story, or Politico censoring this story, the media should not be determining what to censor and what not to censor. Release the documents and let the voters decide.

Sometimes it is illegal (when obtained via hacking and shared with the media privately) and sometimes it is false information.

Responsible journalism is preferable

> Responsible journalism is preferable

Sure, but each newsroom, and maybe even journalist, has their own interpretation of what is "responsible".

Do we really want the mainstream media determining what’s “false” what a track record they have so far. We should trust people to judge for themselves.

Responsible journalism is not about determining the truthiness of the material. It is more about ensuring the credibility of the information, by getting multiple sources and not reporting hearsay or tweets with no sources. Responsible journalism should include important context and not make or report hyperbolic statements by people with an agenda

There is a reason for journalistic standards for publication.

1. Authenticity.

2. Motivation.

3. Importance.

When Iranians/Russians/Chinese hack political campaigns, they

1. Can falsify data, or inject errors.

2. They can "editorialize" the leak before publication to have a bias.

3. They can reveal information not relevant for the public but really harmful for the individual.

Let voters decide my ass. The purpose of journalism is to distill data for people to decide.

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