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WHAT OUR MISSION IS HERE AT PWINSIDER: WHEN AN ISSUE GOES FROM ACCUSATION TO FACT

By Dave Scherer on 2018-07-08 10:00:00

You can send us questions for the PWInsider.com Q and A at pwinsider@gmail.com.

Last week, a female wrestler made vague accusations on Twitter against a male wrestler.  I noticed you didn’t cover it on the site.  What is your stance on that subject?

When I got into this business decades ago, the standard for journalism was starting to change.  While there were still great examples of outlets that did things the right way, unfortunately we were starting to see more and more outlets “report” things first, and then do the reporting work later.  A lot of outlets back then started “reporting” accusations and opinions as fact and it started what, in my opinion, has led to the slippery slope that we find ourselves in now.  We can now turn on channels that present themselves as “News” channels and we get things “reported” that often aren’t true, many of which have never even been checked for their veracity.  

That has never, ever sat well with me and it’s why I don’t watch many of the “news” outlets here in the US.  I want facts and I want truth.  I have always felt that a smart person can take facts and truth and then come up with their opinion on an issue.    

With my newsletter and now the site, I have always taken the position that we report what we can prove, not what someone claims.  I realize that in the time since, things have only gotten worse in that regard.  Just go right to the top in the US, our President claimed that the former President tapped his home.  He had no proof of that and it wasn’t ever proven to be true, but a TV outlet “reported it”, the President mentioned it and viola, we have a “news” story.

Except, it wasn’t a news story and it should have never been “reported”.  But, it was and since it was, it put people in a position to have to respond to it and/or defend themselves from something that never happened.  Whenever that happens, whatever side of the aisle someone sits on, I find that to be wrong.  It’s certainly not true journalism.  It’s not something that we will ever do here.

When I got started in this business, a lot of the people inside wrestling referred to what we did as “The Dirt Sheets”.  I never wanted to run a “dirt sheet”.  I wanted run a news outlet, where every possible effort was made to vet a story before reporting it.

And make no mistake, having journalistic integrity can be bad for the bottom line.  Salacious stories sell, that is why they get reported.  A headline accusing a wrestler about something unsavory is probably the definition of “posting something to get clicks”.  When there is a sourced out story, that is fine.  When there are simply accusations, it’s not (at least in my opinion).   

In the case you mention, yes there were vague accusations made.  We were aware of them and we contacted people that were there at the time that they allegedly happened.  No one could confirm her account, as vague as it was.  We did what journalists used to do, and are still supposed to do.  We got a “tip” and we followed up on it.  We couldn’t confirm any of it happened so at this point, there is nothing to report other than someone made an accusation against someone else.  We can’t report that it did or didn’t happen, so right now it’s not an actual news story in my view.  It’s claim that someone made on social media.

I could go on social media and write: “George Lucas should be embarrassed.  He took Mike Johnson’s idea for the Star Wars series and ran with it, making zillions for himself while giving Mike nothing!”

Guess what?  That isn’t true.  So why would anyone report it?  I know it’s an extreme example but the idea remains the same.  And to be fair, there claims that are sometimes made that, after sourcing them, we find that there is a story there and we will report on it.   That is all we can do if we want to be true to what our mission is here at the site.

To be clear, I am not passing judgment here.  I am saying there just isn't enough known, tangible information to responsibly report anything.

In this case, she did mention that she had lawyers working on her accusations.  If that progresses and legal documents are filed, that is where, in my opinion, we move from “accusation” to “story”.  At this point, however, there is just not enough information for us to do anything other than keep the accusations on our radar and see if it goes anywhere.  

I hope that explains it because a lot of people have asked me about this issue.

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