Here is a follow-up on my "poster boy" post of last week. Eugene Volokh has reprinted the post at his eponymous Conspiracy and added some additional investigation.

A reporter at NJ.com told Eugene that he just reported Senator Booker's statement. However, the first three paragraphs of the story simply report the supposed facts of Underwood's case with no quote marks and no mention of Senator Booker.

If the same reporter had received a press release from Senator Cotton, would he copy the facts stated there into his story with no checking, no quote marks, and no attribution? I seriously doubt it. That is a good example of the confirmation bias referred to in the original post.