Dan GillmorDec 30, 2022

The Santos/fraud situation is bad news for journalism on two grounds, but the Washington Post noticed only one of them.

The Post's coverage highlights Big Journalism's utter failure to do its job in a timely way even when a smaller news org had blown the whistle on some of Santos' lies weeks before the election.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/12/29/north-shore-leader-santos-scoop/

1/x

(Edited to remove errant apostrophe...)

A tiny paper broke the George Santos scandal but no one paid attention

The North Shore Leader was onto his lies months before he was elected in New York.

The Washington Post
Show threadDan GillmorDec 30, 2022

That was bad enough. But there's another journalistic aspect to this situation that may be even worse.

The small news org that did cover the Santos deceit didn't have enough clout in its own community to make a difference.

There was a time in local journalism when coverage of (and scathing anti-Santos editorial about) the candidate's lies would have been enough to ensure his defeat.

2/x

Show threadMelanie SillDec 30, 2022
@dangillmor I agree that it’s a more profound gap, Even among the outlets that are surviving, a shrinking number see it as their job (or within their capacity) to do accountability #journalism, including on local elections. Did other/ bigger local outlets (and journalists who subscribed to the Leader) see it as their role to dig in and alert voters to the questions about #Santos? Or did this seem like someone else’s job?
Show threadDan GillmorDec 31, 2022

@melaniesill I increasingly wonder about this, and wish we had data to know for sure (academics take note).

In this case it's painfully clear that bigger outlets did NOT see it as their role to do anything in a timely way. (The Times' first dive into Santos doesn't even mention the local news outlet, though the Times is notorious for not giving due credit to other journalists.)

My guess is they all think it's the job of opposition research, not journalists, to vet backgrounds.

Show threadDan KennedyDec 31, 2022
@dangillmor @melaniesill Have you spent much time looking at the Leader? It’s kind of a rag, although the failures are inexcusable.
Show threadDan Gillmor
@dankennedy_nu @melaniesill I keep coming back to how we can get organized enough to put things that matter on the civic agenda. And I'm not talking about clickbait swarms...
Dec 31, 2022 at 12:47amWeb
Show threadDan KennedyDec 31, 2022
@dangillmor @melaniesill BTW, I’m not being the least bit dismissive of the media failures that let to Santos escaping scrutiny. I’m just saying it’s an old, familiar problem.