Friday, February 20, 2009

Factchecking Punky

Sean Braisted matches maintreamer Jeff Woods' anonymous source--on the question of whether Dems with congressional power will assist the state party--with his own contradicting anonymous source.

Let's see. Do I believe a connected-to-the-party blogger or do I believe a journalist in whom I see a demonstrable lack of objectivity and who gets paid to dig dirt and cover his sources? I'm choosing the former.  At the very least, they cancel one another out.

Besides, Sean had previously busted Woods for failing to verify allegations that a mayoral candidate was attempted to cheat "Urban Plunge" during the last campaign.  The fallout included the Scene correcting Woods' allegations. Track records matter.

But you know? The lesson in the latest war of sources is that you don't have to be a professional journalist to channel anonymous sources. And don't hand me "Woodward and Bernstein" as a counterargument.  Woods writes like neither, and the Scene ain't WaPo.



UPDATE: Sean is also holding court over at Kleinheider's place. He's doing an admirable job holding his own against the comments of Jeff Woods, Thing 1, Thing 2, Thing 3, etc.

Thurston Howell, the Third, indeed. That one drew a few laughs here.


UPDATE:  Heh.  More Sean:
I write a story, you guys ask me to confirm with the Congressional office, I confirm with the Congressional office, you guys say, “of course they are going to confirm”.
The trolls are always outguessing all of you tools. They're so much smarter. That's why they're anonymous. We couldn't behold their true identities and live to tell of it.

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