PressEthic

From AndrewSullivan.com:

CHENEY AND PLAME: The rumors are now swirling. Who has really been cooperating with Fitzgerald? The new buzz is that it could be ... Colin Powell. Who ends up at the center of the Plame outing? The odds may be narrowing on Cheney. If that pans out, we could be about to hit Plamegate pay-dirt; and the Bush administration could be headed into a political Katrina. But this is still just Capitol Hill buzz; and my sourcing is still light. A blog is not a newspaper and what I've just detailed wouldn't (and shouldn't) get into a newspaper. But, hey, speculation is part of what a blog is for; and I don't see why I should withhold what folks in DC are buzzing about from readers. We still don't know a lot. And these rumors may be shot down. But the issue may well be the now long-reported Airforce One trip where Plame's covert status was allegedly discussed. With whom did Powell allegedly share the email? Who took the information and used it? We may soon find out.

Much has been written about what the future holds for journalism and the immense promise of blogs for this class project. While I appreciate blogs and their ability to spur conversation, I hope that Andrew Sullivan's Matt Drudge impersonation (above) doesn't represent how journalism will be practiced in the years ahead. By admittedly peddling "rumors," "buzz," and "speculation," the popular blogger is contributing to the gossip-ifcation of political reporting. Sure, it's entertaining...but is it accurate? Sullivan doesn't seem to care, brushing off such potential criticism by writing, "But, hey, speculation is part of what a blog is for ... "

Perhaps we've gotten to the point after so many years of pumped-up, sensational news coverage that we're skeptical of everything the mainstream media reports, moving to the point of not caring about the difference between rumor and fact. Even if so, I don't think the solution is to throw up our hands and allow any and all kinds of speculation into the public realm. In fact, whether Cheney is involved in the Plame affair is irrelevant; by spreading the gossip on his blog, Sullivan blatantly disregards the fundamentals of journalism, namely fact-checking, using unimpeachable sources (plural), and an emphasis on accuracy above all. Isn't Sullivan (and Drudge before him) leading the blogosphere in a irresponsible direction? Glib rationalizations notwithstanding, I don't know how Sullivan (or anyone else) can truly justify such practices.