North Central College in the News

North Central College political science professor quoted in Associated Press

Nov 29, 2022

William Muck shared the importance of corroborated information in war time situations

The Associated Press (AP) fired a reporter and will be reviewing their standards for anonymous sources after a reporting incident involving an error in a story about a fatal missile strike, which killed two people in Poland. James LaPorta, former national security reporter, was found primarily responsible for the story blaming Russian missiles for the strike on November 15. It is believed that it was Ukraine who fired the Russian-made antiaircraft missiles in the NATO country.  

AP was the first news organization outside of Poland to report on the strike and thus the error contained power in belief. This slander against Russia is particularly dangerous because of NATO’s commitment to respond to an attack on a member country.  

William Muck, professor and chair of the political science department at North Central College, was quoted in the AP, where he discussed the importance of why journalists need to take care of their stories in “fog of war” situations – given the potential consequences. 

““We forget that the nature of conflict is that there is a lot of ambiguity and uncertainty,” Muck said. “There is reason for caution and to slow things down.” 

The AP piece generated an additional 191 media placements: