OT: Journalism (was: interesting ....)

Liam wrote:

> So if I refer to the Iraqi information minister as the source
> of my information I can print "The Americans will not be in
> Baghdag, never!"

No. This asserts that the statement is true.

You can gladly print "It appears that the Americans will not be
in Baghdad," if you, in your experience as a journalist,
consider it equally unlikely that the Iraqi information minister
would lie about the progress of a hostile force as that the New
Zealand tourism minister will lie about what South Africa
offered for its domain.

Considering that the former is known as a habitual liar and
braggart, and has rather more pressing reasons for lying than
justifying a $1 million expense, an experienced and thoughtful
editor would probably counsel against it, however.

(Besides, the statement in question, by its very logical
construction *cannot* be true.)

Stick to: 'The Iraqi information minister said, "The Americans
will not be in Baghdad, never!"' and refer to it afterwards as:
"the Iraqi minister's claim about the Americans".

Note that the way a statement is reported attaches a likelihood
of truth, based on the quality of the source(s), the amount of
corroborating evidence, and the lack of contradictory evidence.