Journalists vs. Bloggers

I get my information from both, and I don't trust either, really. Once a journalist myself, I still try to abide the two-source rule. My editors held fast on that: if I couldn't corroborate information from a second source, not matter how juicy it might be, we didn't run it.

I don't think most bloggers are that diligent.

Bill O'Reilly makes the distinction.

What journalists do, which many bloggers have yet to learn, is to consult multiple sources and do fact checking before blurting out a story. But what bloggers do, which journalists have yet to learn, is to wear their biases on their sleeve, rather than pretending they don’t exist.

I'm not sure he's totally right about today's journalist consulting multiple sources all the time, and I'm not sure he's totally right about bloggers either.

If we had the best of both worlds -- due diligence and open bias -- it would be easier to know how close we are to the actual reality of the situation.