someone was ranting that, essentially, if a reporter can't provide incontrovertible proof of their statements then they should shut the hell up
You know, that's EXACTLY what's wrong with so much so-called "journalism"
today. Instead of even trying to get at the core issue, they'll say "a
Republican said X, and a Democrat said Y." Even of both the Republican
and the Democrat are lying through their teeth, the /reporter/ is living
up to Rob's uncompormising standard of truth because it's provable that
the Republican said X, and provable that the Democrat said Y.
And yet...both X and Y are wrong. So how do we, the citizenry, find
out what's really going on? That style of reporting, so common in all
forms of media today, certainly won't enlighten us.
Everything the reporter says is true...but we learn nothing.
Alternatively, there are a few journalists -- very few -- who aren't
scared of Rob's standards, and /do/ try to dig deeper, to find out what's
really behind the X and Y statements.
These people are necessary, because it is through their work that we
get closer to actual knowledge instead of base trivia.
