Crediting the opposition

An obscure law of journalism prohibits reporters and editors from letting readers or viewers or listeners know that the opposition media beat them in uncovering a major story. The alternative is also a law: Never fail to report that their paper or TV or radio station was first to reveal a story. For example, The Boston Globe rarely misses a chance to tell readers the Globe uncovered the priest scandal, a story which led to a Pulitzer Prize and a Hollywood movie.

What brings this up is the top story in today’s printed Globe about three state troopers charged by federal prosecutors for faking their overtime hours of service and boosting their pay big-time. Check it out at: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/06/27/three-massachusetts-state-troopers-arrested-federal-authorities-overtime-fraud-probe/xOTZAMVI80WF11ZAIO8R4K/story.html

Nowhere in the printed Globe story is mentioned that the overtime fraud was uncovered, after months of research, by Boston’s WCVB TV Channel 5 Investigates.

File under: Thank the media gods and goddesses that Boston is still a multi-local-media town.

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