Want to know how unsubstantiate rumors find their way to The Washington Post? Listen to The Post’s Dana Milbank give the excuse, for an excuse is all it is. Incredibly, he suggests that Matt Drudge, the British tabloids, the U.S. tabloids and I guess you and me, make The Post do it. He suggests that media writer (sometimes called a Political Writer by The Post) Howard Kurtz, whose wife, by the way, is reportedly a Republican consultant, will write about these rumors, even if they’re unsubstantiated, because Drudge, the tabloids and blah, blah, blah are doing it. Here’s the transcript:
Terry Gross of “Fresh Air” on NPR: So, when there’s an allegation about an affair or a personal thing like that, the Washington Post decides to investigate a little and see if there’s anything there before deciding whether it’s worthy of coverage or not?”
Milbank’s Response: “Yes, of course. The typical way these rumors wind up in the mainstream is they wind up on the Internet, then they wind up in the British publications, which seem to have a lower standard of accuracy. Then they make it into the American tabloids market, like the New York Post, and eventually it filters into the mainstream. If there’s accuracy to the rumor then of course we’re going to be covering it. If there’s no accuracy to the rumor, most likely we’ll do it as we did this week, and that is have our media writer write about everybody else writing about it.”