Jeffrey T. Kuhner
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Jeffrey T. Kuhner is editor of the American Internet news magazine Insight on the News.
In 2007, the New York Times labeled Kuhner purveyor of "the first anonymous smear of the 2008 presidential race" for publishing a factually-incorrect article about U.S. Senator and Presidential candidate Barack Obama, in which an anonymous writer for Insight claimed that Obama had attended a radical Islamic Madrassa school in Indonesia as a youth. The article also cited anonymous sources.
Because the article was quickly picked up and propagated by the United States mass media, Kuhner and Insight became notable not only as publisher and source of the debunked article, but also as an example of journalistic unreliability. Fox News was also brought further into the spotlight for running the web-based story without first verifying its claims.
According to the New York Times article,
To most journalists, the notion of anonymous reporters relying on anonymous sources is a red flag. "If you want to talk about a business model that is designed to manufacture mischief in large volume, that would be it," said Ralph Whitehead Jr., a professor of journalism at the University of Massachusetts. With so much anonymity, "How do we know that Insight magazine actually exists?” Professor Whitehead added. “It could be performance art."
Even though CNN has proven the Insight article be inaccurate, Kuhner maintains that it is "solid as solid can be".[1]
[edit] References
- ^ "Feeding Frenzy for a Big Story, Even if It’s False", New York Times, 29 January 2007. Retrieved on 2007-01-29.
