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Credible pacifier, but right? A case of letters

· The truth must always be the meat, bones, blood and clothing of credibility, which is the engine life and journalism.

By: Luis Fernando Mata

was a shocking story, the kind that immediately won a Pulitzer, it was a story done by CNN in June 1998, with witnesses and all of an incident during the Vietnam War, in which, allegedly, the U.S. used sarin gas to kill defectors.

The program aired and caused an immediate stir, but was denied, days later, Newsweek reporters who questioned the story and crumbled, from a business research.

According Newsweek publications, the " main source of CNN, Gen. Thomas Moore (head of the Joint Chiefs at the time), denied that he had
confirmed the use of sarin gas. "

Here in Costa Rica last year, an error of assessment in The Nation newspaper, reported killed the singer Gustavo Ceratti, who to date is convalescent after ingestion of pills mixed with liquor.

The consequences, in the first case, CNN said goodbye to everyone involved in the ill-fated documentary about the nation, this public apology through a couple of clarifications on its website.

For any journalist, credibility increases with the success he has in what he does, and if that success has been established in efforts honest and real.

A warning

lessons in my Introduction to Journalism, always insist on students on the need for corroboration, over and over again, said by sources and ensure that this is true and verifiable.

One of the national examples, which once were called, was the supposed arrival of the national territory of the Dominican group Las Chicas del Can that, indeed, had announced its arrival in our country.

But at the time of flight, weather conditions made travel impossible, so "The Girls" canceled his presentation, which occurred in the mid-80. A national journalist, who The statement did not come in time the flight cancellation was not the airport, but merely to publish a file photo of the group, with an alleged interview with the young singers.

The next day, in parallel with this article came out the other newspapers, who clarified that "the girls" did not arrive and the reasons for their absence in the country. Of course, the journalist was fired, that being their last with a means of communication.

newspaper The message must always be "credible and very true," although its contents, in other mouths or written by other hands do completely amazing.

Speaking of credibility, the American journalist Kevin Hall, a former director of "Tropic," Miami Herald's Sunday supplement, explains in his book Journalism and creativity ", the most common mistakes journalists , which lead to decline in its credibility.

says Kevin Hall, " the most common mistakes committed by some
reporters, in their desire to achieve fame are in the following order:

- Fictional characters.

- Characters compounds: when based on real situations
of several people, you create a character who lives all alone.

- fake testimonials to give credibility to a
information that can not be demonstrated.

- Dating wrong: when he says fits
certain character or witness to better fit what we want
show (this is the error of the CNN accommodate what Moore said the general
to give cogency to information
was only a rumor).

- All of these errors listed in the book "Journalism and Creative
" violate the cardinal rule of journalism: the
truthfulness. "

credibility as a synonym of confidence in what we say or you see the truth in what we are told, is necessary not only for journalists, but is a universal value indispensable for the life of everyone, be it professional or not.

From writer and journalist Gabriel García Márquez rescue "that journalism requires strict conformity with the truth even if no one creates it."