Rolling Stone, rape journalism and corrections.

The media is not a monolithic entity, the way you seem to think. The media, or the world of journalism, consists of anyone with a pen and paper and a copy of the first amendment. It's not a special privilege. It's everything from a guy with a blog to a supermarket tabloid to Rolling Stone to the New Yorker magazine to Grant's Interest Rate Observer to Oprah.

Each of those have their own standards regarding what they report and how they do it. They each have their own standard for how they vet information. Some have standards you might consider high. Others don't. As a reader, it's up to you to decide how much trust you put in something you read or hear or see. Most people consider the track record of their source of information when evaluating its reputability.

It's nothing like the "higher standard" you believe the police should be held to. The police are given special powers, or authority, that allows them to detain citizens. Journalists have been given no special authority that any citizen can't claim for him or herself. Pick up a pen and write on a cocktail napkin and disseminate it. Voila. You're a journalist. How good a journalist you are depends on you and how much others trust you.

If you don't think that ESPN or Rolling Stone meet high standards in accomplishing what they purport to do, that is a valid opinion. But assuming you have a valid beef with their work, their failures reflect on THEIR work -- not on everyone and anyone who has ever picked up a notebook and a pen and asked people questions and written an article, the way you continually claim on here.

 

I missed that article of the constitution in which anyone was given a special place in society, as you put it, that you (or anyone else) can't enjoy if you choose to. Can you point me to it?

If you have a gripe about who any particular government official chooses to talk to and who not to talk to, you should take it up with that government official -- because that is his or her choice. But the freedom of information act applies just as well for you, and in the same exact way, as it does for Nicholas Kristoff, for example. And there is no secret decorder media ring that drops a whistleblower, for example, in anyone's lap. It's your ability to find the story and win over someone's trust. That is usually a function of your track record and your work. It's not a special privilege that you can't enjoy if you are able to get someone to talk to you.

What any particular person is "supposed" to do, is a matter of opinion. If you think that people could be better informed than they are. ... go for it. I affirm you. Go out and do it. The constitution gives you the same rights as Bill Simmons. If you think someone botched a story, and it's really important that you get to the bottom of it... go for it. Write your expose and publish it however you see fit. You have as much right to pick up a phone, or send an e-mail or ring a doorbell as anyone else. The constitution gave you the same rights as whoever you think is supposed to be doing it better.