iReport's banner at the top of the site reads: "Unedited. Unfiltered. News." That marketing, Tompkins asserts, delivers a misleading message.

"Unedited, unfiltered news -- what that means to me is, boy, this is the real thing. Nobody's trying to put a spin on me here," he says. "The truth is that it's not just unedited and unfiltered -- it's unverified."

A more detailed disclaimer is found only when clicking onto the site's . Tompkins questions whether that inconspicuous placement is enough.

"If you're going to run a raw site like that, with absolutely no verification, it better be prominently displayed that this is nothing more than a rumor mill," he says.

Definition debate