Circular reporting

Two basic ways that circular reporting can happen. Dashed lines indicate sourcing that isn't visible to the final reviewer. In both cases, one original source (top) appears to the final reviewer (bottom) as two independent sources

In source criticism, circular reporting or false confirmation is a situation where a piece of information appears to come from multiple independent sources, but in fact is coming from only one source.^[1][2] In most cases, the problem happens mistakenly through sloppy intelligence gathering practices, but in a few cases, the situation was believed to have been intentionally caused by the original source.^[3]

This problem occurs in variety of fields, including intelligence gathering^[2], journalism, and scholarly research.

Wikipedia is sometimes criticized for being used as a source of circular reporting.^[4] Wikipedia advises all researchers and journalists to be wary of using Wikipedia as a direct source, and instead focus on verifiable information found in an article's cited references.

Specific examples

• the 2002 Niger uranium forgeries ^[5]

• Wikipedia and Der Spiegel in 2009, regarding Karl-Theodor Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg ^[6]

• Wikipedia and The Independent in 2007, propagating the false information that Sacha Baron Cohen worked at Goldman Sachs^[7]

See also

• Media echo chamber

References

1. ^ Sergeant Marcus Sterzer, CD, B.A.; Master Corporal Patrick McDuff B.A., M.A.; and Corporal Jacek Flasz (Summer 2008). "The Challenge of Centralized Control Faced by the Intelligence Function in Afghanistan". Canadian Army Journal. http://www.army.forces.gc.ca/caj/documents/vol_11/iss_2/CAJ_Vol11.2_12_e.pdf. 
2. ^ ^{a b} "The Cocktail Napkin Plan for Regime Change in Iran". Mother Jones. 2008-06. http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/06/8595_three_days_in_r.html. 
3. ^ Micheal T. Hurley, Kenton V. Smith. "8". I Solemnly Swear. p. 128. ISBN 0595299474. "Pan Am would eventually try to play that game by trying to introduce into court news reports that they themselves had a hand in producing."  Google Book search, retrieved on 23 July 2009.
4. ^ Timmer, John (2009-05). "Wikipedia hoax points to the limits of journalists' research". Ars Technica. http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/05/wikipedia-hoax-reveals-limits-of-journalists-research.ars. 
5. ^ Drogin, Bob; Hamburger, Tom (2006-02-17). "2006-02-17". Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2006/feb/17/nation/na-niger17. 
6. ^ "Wie ich Freiherr von Guttenberg zu Wilhelm machte" (in German). BildBlog.de. 2009-02-10. http://www.bildblog.de/5704/. 
   "False Fact On Wikipedia Proves Itself" (in English). Slashdot. 2009-02-11. http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/10/2211220. 
7. ^ "Wikipedia Article creates Circular references". Tech Debug blog. 2009-01-14. http://techdebug.com/blog/2008/04/19/wikipedia-article-creates-circular-references/.