The Associated Press has fired Bob Lewis, a veteran Virginia political reporter, for a jaw-dropping error he made about Terry McAuliffe a couple of weeks ago. It seems that if, like Lewis, you accuse somebody of lying to investigators just on the basis of the initials "TM" in a federal indictment, you'd better confirm that those initials actually belong to that person and not to somebody else.
This could have been easily accomplished, of course.
Lewis could have called a second and then a third source for confirmation, and then he could have called the McAuliffe campaign for comment. The campaign would have swiftly denied the story and provided solid proof that "TM" was not their candidate. Unfortunately, Lewis apparently did neither of these things. So AP immediately retracted the story, and now Lewis is out of a job.
We cats are generally sympathetic to the press and would have been satisfied with a two-week suspension instead of a sacking. But if there's one lesson that experienced and newbie journalists alike can take from this drama, it's this: You can't just accept right-wing spin.
Nope, you actually have to do some reporting. Just because you're conditioned to think something is true because of the way FOX "News" views the world, you still should be reporting facts — not assumptions. We cats HISS.
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