[Wolfstar]

As a writer and former media insider, I can't caution people often enough: The media lies. It lies often (not always, but far more often than people realize). It lies by commission. It lies by omission. It lies by using questionable or outright false information as "fact." It lies by using weak or non-existent anonymous sources, and mischaracterizing those sources as "close to...," or "a senior...," or "an official...," etc. It lies through misuse of polls.

The Jayson Blair form of media lying is bad enough, but what's worse is the subtle way people's words are twisted and used against them, or used to start a controversy. This is the most common form of media lies. It's insidious, very difficult to catch, and extremely difficult to rebut once the lie is out in the public "bloodstream."

I urge everyone to cultivate a healthy skepticism whenever the media goes into overdrive on any story and tries to get you to believe they tale they tell.

[BlueNgold]

I am reminded of "All the President's Men" ... as I recall Woodward and Bernstein were forced by their editors to source, check, and verify through at least one other source everything they were planning on publishing if they intended to rely on an 'unnamed' primary source. When did the 2 source standard disappear?