Reliability of news sources?

[KaizoMK]

My friend and I were talking about the galnet article about Consuela Knight faking her disappearance, when he noted "that's something you say when you killed them and want them to fade into obscurity." Which really got me thinking of how the news is structured.

"...An anonymous reporter told independent newsfeed The Sovereign:...

So, what's up with these news sources? How reliable are they? How reliable is Galnet?

 

[Arry]

My friend and I were talking about the galnet article about Consuela Knight faking her disappearance, when he noted "that's something you say when you killed them and want them to fade into obscurity." Which really got me thinking of how the news is structured.

"...An anonymous reporter told independent newsfeed The Sovereign:...

So, what's up with these news sources? How reliable are they? How reliable is Galnet?

Only as reliable as its writers. Who then, can blame their sources. Which is dependent on their 'point of view', perspective and interest.

Don't forget; Chinese whispers, can play their part.

 

[Sapyx]

I believe the lore is that the superpowers and major Indie corporations have their own news factories, each biased in their own way (Imperial Herald, Federal Times, etc); Galnet is kind of like Wikpedia, attempting to put it all together after the fact, from a "neutral point of view", though this neutrality can be pushed by vested interests if the vested interests of "the other side" show little or no interest in the story. So it always pays to read the context; a Galnet story which claims to be primarily sourced from the Federal Times will likely still have a pro-Federation slant; a Galnet story that quotes both the Times and the HErald is more likely to be NPOV.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

So far as I can tell Galnet is 100% accurate in what it reports.

However, most of what it reports is "X said Y" and X is often lying. So assuming that means "Y" is true is generally not a good idea.

The articles usually hint fairly heavily in their choice of words when someone is not being entirely truthful. I feel they were generally more subtle about this a year ago, and it went over too many people's heads, so as you've noticed they've made it a bit more obvious in the more recent ones.