Lessons From Russia: Verify Everything, Don’t Publish Rumors
Masha Gessen JAN. 14, 2017
The year was 2006. A reporter for an independent Moscow newspaper who had uncommonly good access to President Vladimir V. Putin had written an article about the president’s affair with a famous athlete. I was the editor of a monthly magazine and wanted the journalist to expand his report for my publication.
“I made it up,” he said breezily when I called him.
That could mean several things. He could indeed have made the story up. Alternatively, he could have been lying when he said he had made it up. Maybe he had gotten in trouble for publishing it and had to promise to deny it in order to maintain access to the president. On the other hand, if it was made up, he had probably secured Mr. Putin’s consent for the fib — it portrayed the president as the macho man he likes to be. But then why didn’t the journalist want to do another article on the topic? Perhaps they both wanted the story to take on a life of its own. I was going down a rabbit hole. It wasn’t the first time: In my job, this sense of endlessly unfolding confusion had become familiar.
more
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/14/opinion/sunday/lessons-from-russia-verify-everything-dont-publish-rumors.html?ref=opinion
