[Dangeranger]

It would seem to me that the reporter should have at the very least reached out to the commenter they were quoting and asked for permission to use them as a source. If it were me writing the story I would have made very sure the source was also reputable and confirmable, as that is not always the case in public forums, regardless of the usually high quality nature of HN commenters.

[avivo]

What if you had only an hour or so to research, write, and publish in order to meet your daily quota?

"If they were writing five posts a day, one former employee recalled, Blodget [CEO of Business Insider] urged them to write six." http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/29/media/business-insider-staff...

These sorts of incentives (and the resulting "reporting" quality) are the natural result of the web we have created.

[Dangeranger]

I agree with your sentiment. My feeling is however that the existing incentives are the problem, and they result in low quality journalism.