In The Public Interest:
Investigate your sources of (mis)information – it’s a matter of principle

By Sizwe Sama Yende

I have seen many a journalist left with an egg on the face after being hit by a boomerang. A missile they had directed at us – government – ricocheting to hit back at them.

Those are opportunities for us to gloat, but since we neither have the channel nor the heart to retaliate we let what would make headline news, on the flip side, go unnoticed.

My point is - things backfire for journalists when they make no effort to investigate their sources.

The simple questions a principled journalist needs to ask about a source dangling juicy information before his curious eyes are:

What is the motive for this person to leak or divulge details about a public institution or an individual?
Why is my source so intent to hang the institution’s or individual’s dirty linen on the public arena?

Believe me, journalists invariably prefer to omit or ignore this important principle. “But why?” I always ask myself each day I pick up a national or a local newspaper to read or listen to news in the electronic media.

“Perhaps they are in a hurry to meet a deadline,” I try to answer myself. But this should not be an excuse. Most stories are published prematurely while they could be delayed until information is doubled-checked if not triple-checked.

The one-sided details are, in most cases, so attractive and mouth-watering to a journalist that waiting a minute longer to do proper work would jeopardise a good story.

I need not harp on about how lies about the private life of President Kgalema Motlanthe were splashed in the media. This is one perfect example of a boomerang that has hit our newsmen and newswomen.

No effort was made to investigate the source. It is still difficult for me to understand why I am writing on this topic, because it is a standard procedure in journalism to investigate the source.

Once you are sure who your source is, what is he or she about, then you can carry on with your juicy story.

In most cases sources are disgruntled individuals with skeletons in their own cupboards. What they are looking for is a quick-fix to their predicaments, and the best route to go about it is by pillorying or lampooning others through mass media.

If they do it for the good of the public, not to save their skins then it is justified and – perfect. I know there are those individuals out there who are sincere and committed to see the right things happening, and they throw stones knowing fully well that they do not live in glass houses.

Whatever the case may be, journalists must do their job by getting answers to the questions asked above.

It seems to me some journalists have become the easiest people to hoodwink as they cannot differentiate a fib from fact.

I have experienced a situation where a political organisation raised an issue about my institution - through the media.

When I asked for proof of what was being stated as facts, it was like throwing a duck into the river hoping it is going to drown.

To my dismay, the so-called facts were run in both print and electronic media! No thought was ever given to the fact that the nascent political organisation was trying to gain recognition and the best way to ensconce itself in people’s minds is through mass media.

Journalists across the spectrum failed to investigate the motives of the source whether unwittingly or due to lack of skill. Instead, their judgement of fairness got clouded by the excitement of having a scoop about a district municipality.

My comment that aimed at rubbishing cheap point-scoring tactics was edited out of my response. My institution’s name was embroiled in a smoke of sheer conjecture.

In the few media institutions in which I have worked as a journalist, a story of this nature would not see the light of the day. I would not dare give it to my editor. Never!

I am no longer in the game of journalism, but my unsolicited advice to my former colleagues is: Investigate your sources, and never get into the trap of trying to nail us on hypothetical information.

You will not be doing us a favour but yourselves. The public is increasingly becoming sensitive and aware of the newsgathering process and they know when no justice has been done.

In most cases, the best story to tell is about the person supplying information – the source. I bet you on this one.

Sizwe sama Yende is Senior Communication Officer (Media Liaison) for Greater Sekhukhune District Municipality. He writes in his personal capacity.