I am tempted to go all pedantic and point out that the geographical coverage of the Times in terms of content varies greatly from one period to another. I suspect it was rather better at covering events outside the south east in the 18th century than it has been in the 20th and 21st centuries. Some of the contributors to the Times possessed adequate contextual information to make their accounts accurate, some did not. And I choose the word contributor rather than reporter because I doubt very much whether the early newspaper industry used reporters (or sub-editors) in the way to which we are now accustomed.
Ruth
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