'Not Something We Would Have Published': Unverified Publication About Trump Creates Buzz Among Journalists
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Now that BuzzFeed, an internet media company, posted unverified memos alleging that Russian operatives had compromising personal information on President-elect Trump, the mainstream media has been abuzz. The decision to publish brings into focus the responsibilities of journalists.
BuzzFeed did note just below the headline that the salacious material contained errors and the contents were "unverified and potentially unverifiable."
Patrick Kerkstra, the managing editor of digital content for the company that publishes the Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com, says "if the allegations in the documents are untrue," he doesn't see how the public is served.
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"Judging from what they've said about the unreliability of the documents, it's not something we would have published," he said.
On Tuesday, BuzzFeed plopped down the document in full, about an hour after CNN provided a general description of its contents. CNN says it reviewed the same documents that BuzzFeed had, but it declined to include the specific allegations contained in the dossier because it had not "independently corroborated the specific allegations."
BuzzFeed's editor released an internal email explaining the publication's rationale for publishing "the secret dossier making explosive and unverified claims about Donald Trump and Russia." He says the "document was in wide circulation at the highest levels of American government and media," and BuzzFeed wanted to be "transparent" and share what it had with its readers.
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Kerkstra says journalists should take responsibility for the accuracy of their work.
"I get the sentiment," he said, "but a fundamental role of journalists is to separate fact from fiction."
At his first news conference with reporters Wednesday, President-elect Trump laid into BuzzFeed, calling it a "failing pile of garbage," and when a CNN reporter raised his hand, Trump shot him down, saying "I am not going to give you a question, you're fake news."
