Most people think of journalists as cynical, skeptical alcoholics pounding away at a typewriter keyboard while smoking and making light of some tragedy with gallows humor, the kind of thing you might see in old movies. But they’re smart, see? It’s hard to fool a real newspaperman. And while we wish that were the case, the reality is much different.

Take for example this excerpt from a story in American Journalism Review, a magazine that covers the newspaper industry. The story was about newspapers that use information from Wikipedia, the online database that allows anybody to write or edit entries about a vast array of subjects. Sayeth AJR: 

Hubble Smith, the Review-Journal business reporter who wrote the crane story, says he was simply looking for background on construction cranes for a feature on the Las Vegas building boom when the Wikipedia entry popped up during a search. [It claimed the ancient Greeks invented cranes.] It was among the most interesting information he found, so he used it. But after his story went to the desk, a copy editor flagged it.

"He said, ‘Do you realize that Wikipedia is just made up of people who contribute all of this?’" Smith recalls. "I had never used it before." The reference was checked and allowed to remain in the story.

It’s hard to imagine the worst part of this story: Was it that Smith didn’t know that Wikipedia is written by just about anybody with an Internet connection, and that entries can be edited to include total bullshit? Or was it that he didn’t check information he randomly got off the Internet? Or was it that he’s willing to admit all of this in front of the whole reading audience of one of journalism’s top trade publications?

Seriously, are we going to start seeing stories about a giant monster destroying New York if Smith stumbles onto the website for Cloverfield? He knows there’s no such thing as the Blair Witch Project, right? Seriously, dude, those kids are OK. And somebody better tell him that investing any money at all in Nigeria is a really bad idea. 

On the upside, it’s good to know there are sharp-eyed copy editors at the R-J who are smart enough to raise questions about seemingly improbable claims and call reporters on the carpet when things like this come up. That’s probably why we haven’t seen a story about the footwear industry boom linked to increased production from leprechauns.