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A Howard Rosenberg column in the L.A. Times last month about the way network news programs produce their stories irked ABC News president David Westin, he tells Howard Kurtz in tomorrow's Washington Post. After the Rosenberg column -- a post-Jayson Blair piece -- Westin wrote a memo reminding his staff of the rules:
"In the wake of recent developments at the New York Times, some in print have speculated whether those of us in television news rely on others' reporting without attributing it properly. . . . Whenever we rely upon 'facts' reported by others, we independently verify their truth before we report them." And if that is not possible, "we must always attribute them to their source."