Spectrum

While White House reporters often are given releases and official statements by the President or his staff, it is more important than ever to vet the facts and go through a rather thorough fact checking process before publishing the material, says Toluse Olorunnipa, one of Bloomberg News’ six White House correspondents. In the competitive White House journalism environment, Olorunnipa says it is important to be first with a story and beat other news organizations but it is more important to be accurate. Bloomberg often will quote what the President says and then also note the facts as determined from other official sources. Many of his media colleagues often quote unidentified sources or anonymous sources as a result of leaks. However, at Bloomberg, Olorunnipa is not permitted to quote an unidentified source. Therefore, all of his material that is quoted must be “on the record” comments from officials. A similar policy is in place at the Associated Press but not so at the Washington Post or the New York T