The New York Times senior story producer reveals how his team checked the social media footage of the shoot-down of a passenger plane by Iran and debunked the official story
Last month, a Ukrainian passenger plane was shot down shortly after take-off by an Iranian missile, killing all 176 people on board.
Only a day after the downing, which Iranian officials initially denied, The New York Times published a video clip, originally posted on Telegram, purportedly capturing the moment the missile struck.
So how did the journalist go about verifying the footage?
In this interview with Amanda Darrach for Columbia Journalism Review, senior story producer for the visual investigations desk Malachy Browne explained that collecting a range of videos, the plane's flight path and its altitude helped in mapping out potential missile-launch sites and confirming the location of the footage.
Although not every newsroom or reporter has the same resources as The New York Times, Browne said that this level of reporting is still attainable.
"There's a really strong online community of people who are sharing skills and information, and a lot of them tend to gravitate towards conflict reportage," he explained.
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