The assassination of Iran's top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, and the evolving news made us go back to our statement of core values that we publish on page 2A every day, specifically this:
"The pursuit of truth is a noble goal of journalism. But the truth is not always apparent or known immediately. Journalists' role is therefore not to determine what they believe at the time to be the truth and reveal only that to their readers, but to report as completely and impartially as possible all verifiable facts so that readers can, based on their own knowledge and experience, determine what they believe to be the truth."
The first report out of Iran was that a truck exploded and gunmen fired through the front windshield in this assassination. According to newswire reports, "Iran's State TV on the night of the attack even interviewed a man who describes seeing gunmen open fire."
That account changed in this past Tuesday's paper from more wire service reports. Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of the country's Supreme National Security Council, said that actually there were no gunmen, but instead "electronic devices" mounted and remotely triggered to kill the nuclear scientist.
By the time you read this editorial, there may be new information contradicting the previous reports.
Eventually, the truth will likely emerge on what really happened. Although given that this happened in Iran, and it's a totalitarian state, we may never know for sure.
This shows the importance of reporting the facts that reporters have at the time they have them. Then, if the report on the facts changes, the journalist should report that, too. Some argue today that a reporter shouldn't report something unless the statement/fact can be verified.
But if that were the case, the assassination of Iran's top nuclear scientist would not have been reported at the time. Continuing to report facts, even contradictory facts later, or maybe even what was initially lies from the Iranians, is part of the sifting of information where we finally, hopefully, get to the truth. This is an age-old principle of journalism, but one which is both questioned and not followed enough today.
As we get more facts on this we will report them. And ultimately you, the reader, will determine what you believe to be the truth.