Thanks to BuzzFeed the Untouchable Story Is Open to DiscussionBuzzFeed did the right thing when it chose to publish the dossier of unverified allegations about Donald Trump's supposed entanglements with Russia. This case, in particular, is a good reminder of the fact that the flip side of deciding to publish something is deciding not to publish something. Judgments about what and how and why to publish vary from publication to publication, and that variation is healthy and productive. What CNN and BuzzFeed executed last night was a classic high-low interaction: CNN reported that the dossier existed and that it was of great public importance; BuzzFeed produced the dossier. CNN's vagueness was redeemed by BuzzFeed's specificity, and BuzzFeed's risk-taking was justified by CNN's testimony about the ultimate news value.

Source: New York Times January 12, 2017 00:01 UTC