Austin American-Statesman’s The Scene: Breaking the rules of journalism: Six reasons why sources should see stories before publication.
1. Every story can be improved by having insiders vet it–whether they come off as good, bad or indifferent in the story. “I’ve never been disappointed,” Dobie says. “Every story gets better.”
2. Any disagreement over whether the story is fair is hashed out on the front end, with all interested parties being given an opportunity to have their say. “It’s actually the stand-up thing to do,” Dobie says. “to let people scream at you on the front end. Sometimes, we learn something in the process that can make the journalism better.”
3. Stories are not shown selectively. “It’s a judgment call,” Dobie explains. “I don’t favor one group or another but just use common sense.”
4. A non-cooperative source will sometimes be lured out of a foxhole and provide new and helpful information. The fact is, in stories I’ve written for the Scene, we’ve shown drafts to the attorneys for people we were investigating. When they see what we are up to, they sometimes agree to cooperate.
5. The stories can and do get better without the news organization necessarily being susceptible to pressures. “We don’t cave to pressures, but we try to listen intelligently,” Dobie says. “It’s all a matter of judgment.”
6. In the long run, media organizations get better stories if they have a reputation for getting their facts right, for listening and for being fair. Often times, showing stories, or parts of stories, in advance of publication to sources helps a newspaper in source development over the long haul.
JD Lasica, founder of Inside Social Media, is also a fiction author and the co-founder of the cruise discovery engine Cruiseable. See his About page, contact JD or follow him on Twitter.
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