Readers rely on accuracy

In a review of 2016 news, a CDT reporter stated that Trump “took Pennsylvania” in the elections.

That’s not accurate. A truer statement is “in an unprecedentedly dubious election process, the outcome registered as a Trump victory, but the facts will never be known.”

Supporting this was the following day’s syndicated feature, also in the CDT, outlining in detail the vulnerability and attractiveness of Pennsylvania to exactly the type of hacking that may have occurred. Did it happen? Without a forensic recount, that is unknowable, so Trump’s razor-thin Pennsylvania “victory” has stood. If it were a track and field record, it would have an asterisk next to it forever. “Wind-aided?”

Now more than ever, subscribers rely on real newspapers to report the truth and, just as importantly, to remember it.

This story was originally published December 30, 2016 at 11:34 PM with the headline "Readers rely on accuracy."