Why is important to establish facts before reporting?

The responsibility of journalism is to tell the whole story. The whole story must be based on the facts of the story: the who, why, what, when and where, plus possibly how, so that the story can build its own drama.

Not only are facts to be established, but facts must also be checked, meaning that a separate source must be found to verify the original source's fact.


Finally, in order to tell the whole story, several points of view -- vantage points/ sides must be included, so that the story can reflect the entire situation.


Otherwise, the story can be categorized as fiction.