by Pretoria News, based in South Africa’s capital city. But it may present an opportunity to think anew about what could be done to address journalism’s crisis of trust. For a moment, the tale of a woman in Tembisa, northeast of Johannesburg, and her record-breaking ’10 babies’ seemed like a welcome distraction from the depressing grind of Covid-19, political intrigue and state failures. But it was a very brief moment. The red flags began fluttering almost before the metaphorical ink was dry on the story. Health officials who would have known about such a rare and complex medical event could find no trace of the birth. Then the man’s family distanced themselves from the claim and the woman was taken into psychiatric care.