If American journalists are to retain credibility in this age of "fake news" and public skepticism of information, reporters and writers must check facts, consult well-placed sources, perform old-school legwork and avoid being led astray by their own prejudices and assumptions.
It will be impossible for reporters to hold new President Donald Trump accountable if they don't get facts straight. The Trump administration will feast lustily on journalistic mistakes, such as when Time magazine's Zeke Miller mistakenly tweeted that a bust of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had been removed from the Oval Office just hours after Trump assumed power.
A more recent example of misreporting shows lessons from the missing-bust tweet haven't sunk in with enough journalists.
It happened after a somewhat machinelike performance Feb. 12 by Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller on numerous Sunday morning news shows. Following Miller's strident defense of unlimited presidential power - in which his eyes seemed to scan back and forth as he spoke - the internet erupted with accusations that Miller read off a teleprompter.
"He's reading a script, not answering questions," tweeted Jim Roberts, a former New York Times reporter, among the many who immediately criticized.
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Was Miller, who frighteningly took judges to task for curbing powers of a president "who will not be questioned," reciting from a prewritten, scrolling script as he answered live questions on "Meet the Press," "Face the Nation," "This Week" and "Fox News Sunday?"
No, as it turned out. Simple fact-checking revealed all such claims were a flight of fancy. It was easy to reach a responsive press representative for one of the Sunday shows in question and ask if Miller was permitted to use a teleprompter or cue cards.
"Thank you for reaching out. There was no teleprompter," said Caitlin Conant of CBS News, a media representative for "Face the Nation. "(We) had complete control of the technical production of the interview (and) had staff in the room during the taping." More, CBS News "had staff in the room for the other network interviews."
Yes, in all these interviews, Miller was shifting his eyes back and forth. Maybe it was a nervous tic, or a way to focus his thoughts. But Miller wasn't reading a teleprompter. His well-articulated appetite for authoritarian rule leapt from his mind, not a machine.
Journalists should confront power with truth, not guesswork. The Trump administration, as Miller's appearance underscored, seeks to undermine those who would check its power, especially the judiciary and the press.
Reporters must to rise to this challenge through diligence and devotion to time-tested practices - like confirming information before publication - if they are to successfully cover a White House that "will not be questioned."
