Credible Sources

Authored by Michael Pate on May 11th, 2003 at 5:43 PM

“Now a more fundamental observation. Implicit in some of the objections to weblogs as information sources is that just because weblogging software is used then what is written using this software must in some way be less credible than what is written via other means. Dave Winer was spot on some time ago when he wrote ‘When that journalist writes something on the weblog, therefore, it must not be journalism. Suppose the journalist writes exactly the same words on her weblog that she writes in a column in the newspaper she writes for. In one place it’s journalism and in the other it’s not?’ and ‘It also goes without saying that if an idiot writes a weblog, then you get idiocy in a weblog’. That weblogs are any more or less subject to the maxim bullshit in, bullshit out than any other form of writing is false.” - David Davies

“A staff reporter for The New York Times committed frequent acts of journalistic fraud while covering significant news events in recent months, an investigation by Times journalists has found. The widespread fabrication and plagiarism represent a profound betrayal of trust and a low point in the 152-year history of the newspaper. The reporter, Jayson Blair, 27, misled readers and Times colleagues with dispatches that purported to be from Maryland, Texas and other states, when often he was far away, in New York. He fabricated comments. He concocted scenes. He lifted material from other newspapers and wire services. He selected details from photographs to create the impression he had been somewhere or seen someone, when he had not.” - New York Times

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Times Reporter Who Resigned Leaves Long Trail of Deception
Why do you believe what you read?

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