Down to the wire

Campaign journalism has its pitfalls

The retraction by The Wire of a string of reports on social media giant Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, pending an internal investigation, raises a raft of issues concerning campaign journalism. Founded in 2015 by three senior and well-known journalists, The Wire website positioned itself on a “truth to power” platform, and it has rapidly become a beacon of gutsy journalism at a time when most media houses, including established groups, have succumbed to increasing repression of the press and personal freedoms without much pushback. But by its nature, however, campaign journalism of the kind that