UP long gone? Oooops! Showing my age! So Associated Press has no competition? Another case of a monopoly. Sad.
The point I was trying to make was: all the instant reports which were, according to you, unsubstantiated, should not have been made UNTIL they had their finger on some real evidence. I don’t like the vision of a bunch of reporters running around like chickens with their heads cut off, trying to make points. I tend not to believe them in the end. And I definitely do think that if this is really an enemy attack, it will be covered up clear to China.
UP (United Press) became UPI (United Press International). UPI teetered on the brink of bankruptcy, hanging on by the thread of their one superstar, Helen Thomas (please God, no one take that as a cue to post a picture).
UPI was bought out by the Moonies. It's limping along, but it is not an organization that can stand toe-to-toe with the AP, as it once was.
Another case of a monopoly. Sad.
There's no monopoly; the competition has just crossed borders. AP's competitors are Reuters, Fox/Sky/News Corp., the BBC, CNN/Time, Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA) and Agance Presse Fraincais (AFP).
The Intarwebs have chnged the equation, giving millions of people direct access to IRNA (Iranian state-owned), Xinhua (Chinese state-owned), and so on. The Internet revolution has brought us more wheat by a factor of a thousand, but more chaff by a factor of a million.
The point I was trying to make was: all the instant reports which were, according to you, unsubstantiated, should not have been made UNTIL they had their finger on some real evidence.
I agree in principle. But when the shit hits the fan, when people are freaking out, I am willing to accept reporting the rumors, as long as they are clearly labeled as such. TV news anchors can't just sit there and blink at the camera. They gotta say something, most often written by someone else.