re: #730 iossarian

What should a reporter do if he or she is on the fence about which version of events is true (having done a reasonable amount of fact-checking)?

Reporting both sides, at that point, guarantees that you are reporting at least one lie. On the other hand, only reporting one side gives you a 50% chance of reporting only lies.

Er, there’s also the possibility that both versions of events are somewhat true and somewhat wrong, which is often the case.

At what point of certainty can you discard the opposing view?

It’s entirely a subjective judgement call, just like it is for anyone else. And the reporter should be honest about that. A reporter discards a hundred opposing views— there aren’t just ‘two sides’— on any story before writing it.