Websites can prosper by publishing information that reputable news services would not, unless they can verify it in some way. Websites such as Buzzfeed, which published a grossly damaging tale from an intelligence dossier on the US President-elect, Donald Trump, this week, claim to be serving the public interest. He conceded: "There is serious reason to doubt the allegations" but offered the justification that "we have always erred on the side of publishing". He deserves the benefit of doubt because he is a human being facing an accusation only he can know to be false. Ultimately we owe it to ourselves to build mental defences to salacious information that even its publishers doubt.

Source: New Zealand Herald January 13, 2017 16:04 UTC