Journalistic 'Sin of Sloth'

During my years of advising student media, I always groaned when I saw student reporters going to roommates, girl/boyfriends, even family members for quotes in stories. This apparently passed as reporting. Now Kelly McBride at Poynter has a new piece on this problem, which apparently afflicts even professional journalists at major news organizations.

McBride puts it pretty simply: "Plagiarism and fabrication are sins of sloth. So is quoting your friends."

Of course, there always are exceptions: When your friend from class also happens to have broken the school's scoring record in basketball, then you darn well better get a quote from her. But, most of the time, the reporter who resorts to "sources of convenience" are really guilty of journalistic laziness.

So get out of your dorm room and do some real journalism, y'hear?