My earlier mention of bad reporting from the AP was hte impetus for some interesting blogger debate. We've seen incfreasing use of "anonymous sources" for major news stories, as well as stories that turn out to be fiction, or at least severely stretching the truth. Has the media always been this cavalier about the truth, and we are only discovering now that we have millions of fact checkers typing away at home and trying to get to the truth, or has the media just gotten a lot less ethical in recent years?

And what to do about it? The news media has little incentive to clean up their act. If the average person realizes that the Emperor has no clothes, despite what the media is telling them, they will laugh at the Emperor. So it is in the media's best interest not to have people delve too far in to their practices. As long as people are willing to believe them, the AP can make up any lies it wants, use any source, no matter how dubious, and keep peddling their opinions couched as fact to the world.