Trust

Reporting of any kind depends upon trust. If you do not trust a source of information, the information is worthless; and by extension, the source is worthless. For the mainstream media, whose only job is to be trusted source of information, and whose financial health depends upon being a trusted source of information, losing the trust of the public means losing your advertisers and eventually your job and maybe your business.

Trust is built by a history of being right, a willingness to name sources and the credibility of those sources, reference to other trusted sources, including all evidence, and treating stories and audiences with respect. CBS has failed on each count: they have a history of bad reporting, refuse to name their sources for questionable stories or only name questionable sources, denigrate competitors, exclude evidence contradictory to their desired story and assume we're all idiots.

When it comes right down to it, I find I'd trust a blog whose authors I don't otherwise know, such as Powerline, before I would trust CBS, because blogs have no natural credibility: they must source their points and argue believably or they are ignored.

Tactical maneuver is no aid on a nuclear battlefield.

Posted by Jeff at September 11, 2004 02:13 AM | Link Cosmos