Charles Leerhsen has an eye-opening article regarding the legendary Ty Cobb at http://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/who-wa...w-thats-wrong/
The article is stunning from a journalistic viewpoint in that it demonstrates how most of what has become "public knowledge" regarding Ty Cobb was generated from just a couple of people with their own agendas and shortcomings as journalists. It turns out the most quoted anecdotes involving Cobb could not be traced to original sources.
The story oft related of Cobb fighting with three different black men, when traced to source materials, was revealed to be incorrect, as the three men mentioned were white.
The lessons from this piece are startling. Without documentation or interviews with original sources, a couple of writers were able to promulgate completely incorrect Cobb info across the decades. The writers did not even read some of the original reports from the papers in which they were published.
The article really underlines how journalists with particular biases or agendas can popularize or demonize people, despite having no objective evidence to back up their storytelling.
Definitely worth the read.