Don't Trust the News?

By Rory O'Connor, AlterNet. Posted November 27, 2006.

How can you be sure that the news you see and hear is true? Are there any journals and journalists that you can really trust and rely on? If so, how can you find them amidst the clangor and the clutter?

After all, we live in an age of media scams and scandals -- from blowing it up on "Dateline" NBC to making it up in the New York Times (and the Daily News and USA Today and the Boston Globe and the New Republic and so on, ad nauseum and seemingly ad infinitum…) and from Jon Stewart's "Daily Show" to O.J. Simpson's "If I Did It" show… from Fox News to faux news all the way to even phonier video 'news' releases… and from government-and-corporate-sponsored "opinion" commentary to paid Pentagon propaganda posing as authentic journalism to Disney's undocumented 911 "docudrama" -- wherever and whenever you look, examples of media make-believe abound.

So what's a citizen to do? In recent years, a combination of factors -- including but not limited to the consolidation of mainstream media by huge multinational entertainment conglomerates, the concomitant spread of cable television's highly partisan and factually challenged opinions-as-news formats, the digital information revolution and its explosion of online media outlets, and the Defense Department's Rumsfeldian reliance on "Information Dominance" -- have combined to create a serious long-term problem for our democracy. To put it bluntly, many of us no longer feel we can trust the news media to deliver the information we need to function as fully informed democrats.

Enter NewsTrust, an online social news network aimed at helping people identify quality journalism -- or "news you can trust." This free, not-for-profit service offers the most trusted news of the day, as selected by community members using state-of-the-art media literacy tools. By filtering content available from online sources, establishing common metrics for evaluation, and accessing the "wisdom of the crowds" through social networking, the free, not-for-profit NewsTrust service offers one possible solution to the "News You Can Trust" conundrum. The website, where members rate the news online based on commonly accepted standards of journalistic quality, features news and analysis from hundreds of mainstream and independent news sources. This non-partisan community effort tracks news media worldwide and helps citizens make informed decisions about democracy across party lines.

At NewsTrust, anyone can submit stories and news sources for community consideration. Each is then researched and rated by panels of reviewers for balance, fairness and other basic journalistic principles. Some reviewers are paid practicing journalists, others students -- but most are simply "ordinary citizens" seeking trustworthy information. NewsTrust's voluminous research shows that "amateur'" citizen reviewers using the site's unique review tools are able to evaluate news as reliably as experienced professionals.

NewsTrust is the brainchild of former journalist and brilliant digital media pioneer Fabrice Florin. After cashing out of a company that delivered content to mobile devices, Florin had time and money on his hands. While seeking something "socially useful" to occupy his time, he soon determined that media and its discontents would be a good place to put his energy. In early 2005, Florin began his effort to jumpstart NewsTrust. One of his first calls was to this reporter.

A mutual friend had referred Florin, whom I did not know. He told me of his plan to create an online space devoted "simply to helping each other find good journalism online." He said that he has some early interest and a modicum of backing from MoveOn, the self-identified "progressive family of organizations" that claims 3.3 million members across America working together "to realize the progressive vision of our country's founders."

I told Florin that I liked his concept, but thought it would never work if it accepted funding and support solely from the likes of MoveOn. The key to NewsTrust's success, to my mind, was to ensure that the service was completely non-ideological and non-partisan -- both in fact and in perception. Aligning closely with any partisan group -- especially the controversial Moveon -- would doom the effort at its inception. Finally, I told Florin he would also have to reach out to conservatives and independents and make strenuous efforts to include them in the NewsTrust community.

See more stories tagged with: news, web

Filmmaker and journalist Rory O'Connor writes the Media Is A Plural blog.

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