The American Spectator

p>Is it just me or does this resemble the CNN “reporters” in Baghdad suppressing real news in order to maintain access to those in power? br> — Bob Staggs br> Goshen, Kentucky /p>

“In my view, the culprit was a phenomenon I call the Fog of Reuters.”

p>This does not ring true, as all such “errors” have gone against Israel. br> — B. Wood /p> p> If it is impossible to be an international news organization without bowing down to thugs and dictators in order to spare the lives of reporters, then a disclaimer needs to be put as the first paragraph of every story and the caption of each picture filed from anywhere that thugs rule. Since I doubt that any news organization would do this by themselves, it would also put their reporters at risk if the organization themselves ordered it, then perhaps Congress needs to address this issue. Call it the “Truth in Reporting” law or some such wonderful sounding thing as politicians are wont to do. We require disclaimers on all kinds of products. If you are going to present twaddle as fact at least be required to say the facts contained here in may be twaddle. Do I really want a law passed? No I don’t, but if some means of keeping the major news reporting organizations credible doesn’t happen soon they are going to die. Credibility is their only product. Once it is gone it won’t come back and they are close to losing it now. We all need a truthful, credible press. They are an intelligence agency for “the people” as opposed to the CIA which an intelligence agency for the government. To stay a free people we need good well sourced intelligence. Bad sources need disclaimers so we can weigh their credibility for ourselves. If some way can’t be found for the major news organizations to do this themselves then it will be left to the blogosphere to tear apart every badly sourced story, a “Team B” approach for the “Peoples Intelligence Agency.” br> — Geoff Bowden br> Battle Creek, Michigan /p>