Originally Posted by Ari
Mistakes should be avoided, but are fine and I make them all the time.
I was under the impression that journalists liked to verify information with multiple sources to avoid printing misinformation. I don't suppose that the UA press office was contacted to verify UA's policy of selling exit rows? There is a difference between a mistake and negligence. Not to verify a piece of information when the primary source is readily available is negligent.
Of course the goal is to avoid wrong information. But verification can't be absolute. You could spend every waking hour veryfying every single piece of information and still miss something. The media work on deadlines. How quickly does United get back to your inquiries? Anyone who thinks there's an army of PR people just waiting to take calls from reporters is sadly mistaken.
Are there lazy journalists? Of course. Just as there are lazy salesmen and managers and engineers. By this reasoning, they're ALL negligent.