Journalism students used to be told of a reporter writing a weather story in a newsroom. Even though he can look out the window to see that it’s raining, he turns to the guy at the next desk, asks him to look out the window, and then quotes him in the report. It’s probably apocryphal, but it does reflect the kind of training no-nonsense reporters had in turning to sources, rather than their personal observations.
That’s why you see so many direct quotations in a news dispatch.
What you learn along the way is that what you see may not be the full story, much less the real account.
For all I know, it could have been glass falling from an explosion or sawdust, as they do in theater productions.
At least this way, there’s someone to blame if it’s wrong.
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