As a journalist I have to have websites that I can trust, places that produce accurate and factual information.
While I am not sure whether or not they are my “favourites”, they are my “go to” sites that I know are not filled with lies.
When it comes to news, nearly all of the stories in the western world are generated by two news organizations – the Associated Press and Reuters. The main exception are those stories that have been generated on a local level.
Newspapers, online news sites, and news broadcasts pay the Associated Press hundreds of dollars each month to reprint stores with their name and logos. Sometimes the stories are printed verbatim and other times the paper, site, or network will take the story and “report” it with their own slant.
Knowing this, I go straight to the source – the AP website – for news stories. And on occasion Reuters since they cover mostly outside of the United States.
When working on something related to a musician or band, the artist’s own website it by far the best source of factual information.
The Internet Move Database, the internet Broadway database, the Playbill website, all music, the Grammy website, and of course the NASCAR website are all on my list of trusted sites.
I had to chuckle a bit earlier when a NASCAR related television broadcast spoke about a crew change for one of the teams but had no details about that change. All the information they needed was in an article on the NASCAR website. I know, because I used it when writing my story.
My interviews do not follow the “normal” format, but that does not mean I don’t “do my homework” before hand. How am I supposed to know what to ask or how to steer the conversation if I don’t check things out before hand?
I even had a musician complement me on “doing my homework”.
Television screens, “news” sites, podcasts, and newspapers are filled with so much false information these days that it is impossible to know the truth without some due diligence.
It may take me longer to create an article, but at least I know that the information I depart is factual. I have prided myself on knowing that whatever I write is correct and have built my reputation on it…a reputation I guard very closely.