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The UN stopped using Chalabi's information as a basis for conducting inspections once the tenuous nature of his sources and his dubious motivations became clear. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the mainstream US media, which give prominent coverage to sources of information that, had they not been related to Hussein's Iraq, would normally be immediately dismissed.

Scott Ritter#3

IraqVerificationInformationJournalismMedia

About this quote

What does it mean?
The UN rejected Chalabi's information due to its weak sources, while US media continued to cover it prominently.
In plain terms
Official sources stopped using Chalabi's info but media did not.
What can you take from it?
Media standards should match official verification standards.

Where it applies

  • news reporting
  • source evaluation

Putting it to work

  • fact checking
  • source verification

Questions to consider

  • How do you evaluate news sources?
  • What makes a source credible?

Another view

Media coverage is driven by factors other than just verification.

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