Stephen Merchant, one half of the comic duo behind "Extras" and "The Office," wrote an opinion piece for "The Guardian" yesterday wherein he describes the deplorable state of the press. Specifically, the press reliance on citizen journalism on sites like Wikipedia is leading to a humber of high-profile recantings.

Quoted: Therefore, I implore my fellow journalists to heed my words: we must not let our standards drop. We are bastions of truth and integrity. As Thomas Jefferson once said, "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter." I think Thomas Jefferson said that, but I can't be sure. I got it off the internet.

Get the huge 160,000 word report from the Project for Excellence in Journalism, "The State of the News Media 2007." Next year - bloggers.

Quoted: The State of the News Media 2005, An Annual Report on American Journalism - Presented by Journalism.org

I thought this was an excellent article on the practice of investigative interviewing and how to ask questions that get answers that have real information in them.

Reuters is getting into a bit of hot water over an obviously photoshopped picture of Beirut they posted as news.

Quoted: Ynet News: Reuters withdraws photograph of Beirut after Air Force attack after US blogs, photographers point out 'blatant evidence of manipulation.' Reuters' head of PR says in response, 'Reuters has suspended photographer until investigations are completed into changes made to photograph.' Photographer who sent altered image is same Reuters photographer behind many of images from Qana, which have also been subject of suspicions for being staged

Yesterday, James Risen and Eric Lichtblau won Pulitzer Prizes for their reporting on the president's illegal NSA eavedropping program (this report was delayed by a year). Now Bill Bennett, Alan Dershowitz and other conservatives are saying that these guys should be thrown in jail, not given awards. They claim that this example of free press is "capitulation to Islamists."

What do I think? I think Bennett and Dershowitz are examples of a dangerous and repressed press. They claim to be journalists but are no better than propagandists. Risen and Lichtblau deserve the awards and the administration should be questioned severely for their influence in delaying it.

Quoted: Hiding under the banner of free press advocates, right-wingers are calling for the heads of reporters who publish 'against the president's wishes.'

I read an interview with the author of his book on Alternet. Seems like an interesting premise and the author certainly sounded well thought-out. "Fog facts" are those which are really important but get swept behind the scenes by more salacious journalism that does not matter as much.

The premise is that the press is not as objective as it needs to be and that every administration has used this to their advantage. News is becoming more about reporting press releases than true investigative journalism and the author lays out some ideas for implementing change.

Quoted: Amazon.com: Fog Facts : Searching for Truth in the Land of Spin: Books: Larry Beinhart by Larry Beinhart