Word: firsthand
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Most of the people Signorile quoted had only hearsay knowledge. Their main "evidence" was that the official had supposedly been a regular customer in years gone by at a predominantly gay Washington bar. The few sources who claimed firsthand knowledge about him were generally permitted to remain anonymous. Even some unnamed sources knew nothing themselves but were merely quoting still more obscure acquaintances: in one anecdote an unidentified man said an apparent one-night stand, picked up in a bar, told him of having "dated" the official...
...entire electorate to a single place, where they would meet face-to-face with the presidential candidates and debate the issues. Then, and only then, would the group be polled on its preferences. Such a reform, if effected, would combine the democracy of the modern primary system with the firsthand knowledge of candidates that old-time party leaders brought to the nominating process...
...transcends his material; the writing is earnest, the details repetitive and the analysis predictable. Many of the best quotes and anecdotes in Illiberal Education turn out to be secondhand prose. A pivotal paragraph that argues that affirmative action lowers the self-esteem of black students is buttressed not by firsthand interviews but merely by citations from newspaper articles...
That perception has started to change, thanks in large part to Evaristo Nugkuag, 41, a Peruvian who has emerged as the leading spokesman for the indigenous people of the Amazon. Born of the Aguaruna tribe and educated by missionaries, he watched firsthand the encroachment of loggers, miners and now drug traffickers on traditional Indian lands. Today, as president of a group representing 229 tribes, he argues persuasively that the best way to save the rain forest is to make the Indians its caretakers...
...weeks ago, Richard Nixon had the opportunity to observe firsthand the country that now appears, even in the view of its embattled leader, to be on the brink of catastrophe...