How can mainstream news organizations retain (or regain) their audience’s trust in skeptical world where almost anyone with an Internet connection can be a publisher? That’s the topic a panel of industry experts will address tonight at the Thomson Reuters heaquarters in Times Square. We’ll be live blogging the event here from 7pm ET.
The panel comprises: Andrew Alexander, ombudsman, The Washington Post; Michael Oreskes, senior managing editor, The Associated Press; Lisa Shepard, ombudsman, National Public Radio; and Dean Wright, global editor of ethics, innovation & news standards, Reuters. Jack Shafer, editor-at-large for Slate, is the moderator.
If you’d like to put a question to the panel, leave it in the comments box below and we’ll ask a selection on your behalf.
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A media source called “Editor & Publisher” points out that all the American media fell for a politically correct lie and propagated it to the country. They reported “Second Cop — Not Kimberly Munley — Brought Down Fort Hood Killer.” It just sounded so much better to credit a woman instead of a black man for the deed. There was no checking internet sources for accuracy.
- Posted by TimuchinIf I want or need to know what is going on along with some of the probable outcomes (a context in which those things that are likely to affect me, and my community can be understood and rationalized)I find myself reading the foreign press (London Times, Le Figaro, etc.)as well as national papers. Unfortunately, the newspapers (and broadcast media) don\’t get the picture. Whether they are too busy chasing advertisers or pandering to the pols is anyones guess. The simple fact is that the media must understand that unbiased news or reports of events necessarily include things that are often unpleasant and further that the outcomes may be contrary to ones personal views. That\’s too bad.
Readers and views go to sources that meet or exceed their expectations. Any media outlet that doesn\’t get it,(lots of newspapers going down the tubes these days) won\’t be around too long.
Further, the media has to be accurate. And, the media has to have ethics. I know it\’s old fashioned, but it works and it\’s infinitely superior to tiing oneself in knots trying to be politically correct.
- Posted by C M BoylesHere the US the media is ridiculously bias. Like our politics in recent years the media is far to one side or the other and its hard to trust any one source. In recent years you have daily news reporters getting fired for trying to air stories they knew were not true, but would adversly affect a political figure (Dan Rather I think). Then on the other hand you have news claiming to be fair and balance, but there is no doubt in any watchers mind that each reporter reporting is far to the right (some exceptions may apply but in general its true) Then you have daily news casters highjacking the daily news so they can spin their view. Its rather pathetic no one has created a truely un bias news station. Reuters is the closest thing to un bias I have found but then again many AP reporters are bias in one way or another to the causes they believe in….so I guess we are stuck researching for ourselves and developing our own opinions…could be worse
- Posted by edsall hiltyCan you really trust someone who is truly objective?
- Posted by AlanAs a reader and a citizen, with a degree in journalism from back when it meant journalism, I never cease to be amazed at how journalism has gone from reporting the facts (and doing the digging to find out what the facts are) to reporting what he said, she said, they said, as if all versions are equal and the public can sort it out. This appears to be the new standard in handling politics, public affairs, and national issues. How can anyone trust journalists when the journalists prefer to present argument over fact?
- Posted by ArtThe MSM lost credibility because of zealous reporters not vetting or fact-checking sensational stories from dubious annonomous sources. Also it is quite obvious that MSM is constantly being manipulated into reporting what is nothing more then political spin as a credible story.
It is my opinion that MSM is just as much to blame for the ten’s of thousands of innocent lives that have been murdered by the Bush/Chenny Cabal.
The seperation of truth from political spin was sacraficed for invitations to power-broker dinner parties.
- Posted by Alejandro QuinonezThe last 12 months of news coverage has been an embarrassment to the free world! The slants, bias and refusal to ask the important questions has made the word journalism into a derogatory term. Wake up journalists and start reporting not taking dictation.
- Posted by ConnieReport the news,forget the personal opinion. If you want to be known as a news organization,do just that ,report the news. Stop being a cheer leader for the liberal side. I want a balanced report,not the opinion of some doed in the wool liberal joker. Most of the major networks are bias,you cant denie that,be a little more objective. Your ratings prove what the people want. The worst offenders are the two soft spoken yummies,butter woulent melt in their mouth,females. They are like listening to Opera or some soap opera! Where have all the real news men gone,they are going the same direction as,what once were the worlds greatest newspapers,down the toilet. THE FIGURES DONT LIE!
- Posted by thomas wandlessA question for the panel: I have noticed local media outlets using various social media sites as sources of information in recent stories. For instance, citing recent posts on personal sites as a source. While these sources are now ubiquitous–and some may indeed contain up-to-date information on certain individual–the information you find on them is hardly reliable. Do you see news outlets continuing to use Facebook, Twitter and other social media tools for information?
- Posted by NathanWhen will the news media return to working for the public good? It has been more than 100 years of collusion with the elite banking and political elite. Quote by David Rockefeller “… it would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is now more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government …” - David Rockefeller in Baden-Baden, Germany 1991, thanking major media for keeping secret for decades the movement of the prophetic one world government.
How can we trust the very people who are hearding us to our ends.
- Posted by CJHello
The “mainstream media” organizations have been tools of deception for so long. They have told outright lies and been caught doing it. We now have to rely on new media such as Asia Times on line, Al Jazeera, Daily Star and more to tell us the truth - truth peeks out from Reuters more often these days, but not always.
The swine flu hype is a good example of orchestrated lies
and the failure to cover the Ukrainian H1N1 with apparently recombinant 1918 flu elements is another. Another lie is the hype of “recovery” -there is no recovery for the American people unless the American people abandon the banks and congress and do it themselves.
Another whopper is even Reuters permitting the Fed to be referred to as a “government agency”. It is a for- profit organization of/by/for the banks.
Sorry, but the American people have not been well-served by the media.
- Posted by grandpaQUESTION:
Is it arguably impossible to restore trust while maintaining the current funding arrangement, in which veto power over content is sold off to the highest corporate bidder as a side benefit of the purchase of advertising time.
Large corporations are not subject to anything resembling a free market; nor are they constrained to operate for the benefit of their customers.
In light of these intrinsic problem in our delivery system, could one responsibly urge viewers to trust the accuracy of the information they are receiving?
- Posted by Ralph Dratman