Agreed
(there are not, however, remotely that many legitimate reasons, if any exist, for Politico running the story when they did, with how little information they had).
Absolutely agreed! That was the point of my post. If the news media didn't have documentation, then they should STFU until they do. There's no excuse for them to ruin a good man's reputation like that. Here in our little town in So. Calif., we have exactly the same situation, with a good man's reputation in shreds over baseless accusations. He's been devastated, both economically and emotionally.
I disagree. When they have a legitimate story, they should run it. Politico didn't have a legitimate story, in my opinion, when they first ran it (or a large number of their stories).
Did Herman Cain offer documentation for his statement that one claim was based on a hand gesture indicating that a woman was the same height as his wife?
No. He said that's what he did. He offered no documentation.
Did Cain offer documentation that a former advisor who worked on his Senate campaign leaked the story to Politico?
No. He just knew. He offered no documentation.
As I've been saying, the headline of this article is nonsense.
You can have a legitimate story without documentation. That's why I asked for a summary of the twenty-minute video. Because just saying "No documentation!" and expecting that to be d*mning is wrong on a rational level.
Do you believe the many things Herman Cain has said about this matter? I gather the answer is yes. Has he offered 'documentation' of most the things he's said? No. We're relying on his integrity.
Documentation is not the be-all and end-all. It's not on the list of Journalistic Ethics that was thrown in my face by another poster as the answer.
So I read a headline that said "Politico had no documentation of accusations" and my first thought was . . . well, yeah, but if I'm going to watch a twenty-minute video tell me something new that says the accusations aren't true.
Saying "no documentation" is either just attacking the messenger or hiding the ball.