The devaluation of snapping

I have some sympathy with Mark Meadows’ comments on the lack of sourcing in Reuter snaps/alerts, although I don't think it is as ubiquitous a problem as he suggests.

What I find more disturbing is the devaluation of snapping/alerting, an instrument once used for genuinely important news of widespread international, as opposed to national, interest.

A typical example of this phenomenon appeared on the service today with three alerts in less than a minute on Britain's Prince Philip stepping down from royal duties. I wonder how many markets that moved?

And yes, one of the three was unsourced. ■