User:Plenty/Wikinews parrots mainstream media, offers little original reporting

editorial This is roughly the article I created on May 19, 2005 Unfortunately, due to its "speedy deletion," some of ''its exact wording has been lost. If anyone has saved'' a copy of the original, please post it here.

Wikinews parrots mainstream media, offers little original reporting
May 19, 2005

In a new study, a Wikinews reader has determined that out of the 60 stories published by Wikinews in the past week (May 13 to 19), 58 of them (97%) essentially replicated the information found in various similar stories published by the mainstream global news media such as Retuers, ABC News, and the BBC, as well as various regional sources ranging from ITAR-TASS to the Sun News in Myrtle Beach, SC. Four of these 58 "regurgitated" stories did contain small amounts of original reporting in the form of added details, photos, or sound recordings.

Of the two "non-regurgitated" stories, one was essentially copying the information from a Canadian web site showing the results of a recent election there. Thus, only one story during the week consisted primarily of original reporting: an interview with someone who believes he recognizes a recently publicized missing person. This one story was, at least, amusing and original, though it hardly qualifies as news.

If one stipulates that for a news source to justify its existence as an independently valuable source of worthwhile news, it should provide original newsworthy content, then at least during the last week, Wikinews, after about 6 months of evolution, provided at most one item of sufficient novelty to justify itself.

This writer, for one, is disappointed in the lack of imagination shown by Wikinews reporters and editors thus far.