The Media: Trust, but Verify

I always remember a quote from a great American who said: "Trust, but verify."

That certainly applies to what we hear and read from the media -- all media, the traditional so-called mainstream media to internet media like Huffington Post, Breitbart, HotAir, Media Matters, etc. to other blogs such as the Patch or whatever or whoever posts information for others to read and digest.

We once trusted the media more than we do today because, certainly in part, because we had no other sources for alternative perspectives, evaluations of the news. We have that now, thanks to the internet, but we need to look at all sources of our information with the same filter: Trust, but verify.

If a media source is correct, whether it be CBS, NBC, FOX, Media Matters, Weekly Standard, Huffington Post, TMZ, Weekly World News, the Patch or the Record Gazette, it doesn't matter. What does matter is getting it right. When a media source is wrong, it also doesn't matter which one it is, what does matter is that the information it provided was wrong.

The real facts are that there is no so-called mainstream media. There is just media. There are big ones and little ones, those which try to provide a balance of coverage, try to cover facts as facts and let opinions fall wherever they may, but what really matters is getting things straight and right.

In the modern 2012 world, those which do it best will survive, those that don't will fall. Isn't that the way it should be?