Why People No Longer Trust the Press

Joe Lauria has a nice piece talking about his unwitting role in Jason Leopold's "scoop" that claimed that Karl Rove was about to be indicted (the story turned out to be as reliable as stories about bat boy).

After reading his memoir -- and watching other journalists, such as Jayson Blair at the New York Times and Jack Kelley at USA Today, crash and burn for making up stories or breaking other rules of newsgathering -- I think there's something else at play here. Leopold is in too many ways a man of his times. These days it is about the reporter, not the story; the actor, not the play; the athlete, not the game. Leopold is a product of a narcissistic culture that has not stopped at journalism's door, a culture facilitated and expanded by the Internet.

Journalist now have about the lowest level of public confidence in their trustworthiness. A recent poll of British adults found that "Just 16 percent of British adults trust journalists to tell the truth." The article by Joe Lauria is exhibit A why that trust in the press no longer exists.

HT Instapundit