[LINK] media fact-checking

[Jan Whitaker]

We often slag off the media for not fact checking. Seems to be an 
epidemic and in some areas even more critical than IT. [sorry guys, 
but sometimes I think we take ourselves much too seriously in the 
scope of things]

Anyway, this appeared in a blog I read and it connected to this topic 
of media reliability:
CBS's underlying problem -- and the commonality between the three 
items that I described above -- is the arbitrary and largely 
ineffectual nature of the fact-checking process employed by the 
mainstream media. I have written for perhaps a dozen major 
publications over the span of my career, and the one with the most 
thorough fact-checking process is by some margin ***Sports 
Illustrated***. Although this is an indication of the respect with 
which SI accords its brand, it does not speak so well of the 
mainstream political media that you are more likely to see an 
unverified claim repeated on the evening news than you are to see in 
the pages of your favorite sports periodical.

Full article: http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/11/few-notes-on-media.html

Jan


Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
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Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

Writing Lesson #54:
Learn to love revision. Think of it as polishing the silver for 
guests. - JW, May, 2007
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