The answer related to the Featured Image is easy: No one. I am a fact-oriented journalist, who trusts nobody—nor should you in this era of mass misinformation. With perhaps the exception of Matt Taibbi, there isn’t a soul among my profession whose news reporting I would accept as factual—that is without some independent verification of my own.
We live at a time when commentary and editorialization—narratives, if you prefer—supplant real reporting. Everyone is an armchair analyst with an opinion, and not enough emphasis is placed on gathering facts and assembling them into a meaningful story that unfolds some current event or reveals something legitimately in the public interest.
That’s the fundamental failing of so-called professionals. Meanwhile, social media gossipers and new media pundits are another source of misinformation. Always distrust anyone with an agenda.
Entering stage left is the newest player to this sordid drama: chatbots and other so-called artificial intelligence systems. Perhaps you missed Google’s Gemini chatbot generating historical images of people of color dressed in Nazi uniforms, for example. Ah, yeah.
Gasp, and this is an election year. Prepare for headaches.
For my professional peers, I present some of my missives about trust in news reporting. They’re listed chronologically from oldest (2005) to newest (2023).
- “Journalist’s Trust is Inviolate“
- “The Difference Between Blogging and Journalism“
- “News Gatherers, don’t violate ‘The Prime Directive’“
- “News Gatherers, Follow the Reporting!“
- “‘Trust is the Currency of the Sharing Economy’“
- “Reporting Accuracy Starts with Responsible Sourcing“
- “‘Fake News is the Cancer of Our Times’“
- “Relic of the Fourth Estate“
By the way, I used Leica Q2 Monochrom to take the photo. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/8, ISO 200, 1/200 sec, 28mm; 2:15 p.m. PDT, March 20, 2024.