ABC’s Foley scoop shows value of web tips

Cory Bergman October 11th, 2006

Anonymous web tips and posts on Brian Ross’ blog helped ABC News break the Rep. Mark Foley story. “This marks one of those watershed periods where you can use the Internet to cast an enormous net for people who may have information,” said Robert Thompson, professor of media at Syracuse University. In the past, Ross explains, people with anonymous tips would have been turned away by the ABC switchboard. “People may have known things but they wouldn’t have known how to communicate it and pick up the phone,” he said. Meanwhile, ABCNews.com’s traffic more than doubled after breaking the story, compared to a year earlier.