Getting Your Story Straight

One of the keys to being a good journalist is getting your facts straight. News writing requires you know your sources and have all the details in order. A case getting some journalists in an uproar involves a recent story from the NY Times. The uproar is over a story about the women behind the DABA (Dating a Banker) blog -- women who were complaining after their Wall Street boyfriends lost their cushy salaries as a result of the economic downturn.

According to a Newsweek blog, DABA's cofounder, Laney Crowell, "says that what the Times described as a 'support group' of about 30 women is actually a full-blown parody -- and it’s at least partly fictionalized." The Times issued a correction on the story but, clearly, other journalists aren't satisfied. This incident stands as a reminder that, if you want to be a journalist, you need to be certain your sources are who they say they are, and that they're telling you the truth. In other words, you need to check up on everything a source tells you.