Step 1: pick a small source list
- One wire service for breadth (Reuters, AP, AFP).
- One outlet from each major party to the conflict (state-affiliated outlets are fine here — read them for framing, not for facts).
- One specialist OSINT investigator with a published methodology.
- One humanitarian organisation (ICRC, OCHA, MSF).
Step 2: skim first, read second
Skim all of them in one pass to identify which stories appear on multiple sources. Read in depth only those that survive the cross-check. This filters out 80% of single-source noise.
Step 3: distinguish what you know from what you suspect
Write down the verified pieces separately from the contested pieces. A short list of things I am confident occurred plus a separate list of things I suspect but cannot confirm beats a single mushy paragraph of everything together.
Step 4: come back tomorrow
Most first-day reporting is wrong somewhere. Revising your brief against day-two and day-three sources is the cheapest way to catch your own errors.