In last week's column, I commented on a sentence from a New York Times story. The Times later retracted that very sentence. Due to an editing error, the "summation of interviews with senior administration officials" was presented as a direct quote from an official foreign policy document.
The source of the quote doesn't necessarily affect last week's argument, but it certainly highlights something very simple and very important about journalists: we screw up.
We're people with faults and biases -- a fact camouflaged by the structure of a newspaper. This is the editorial page, so you know you can take everything here with a grain of salt. But on the other pages, people still generally take for granted the validity of printed words. Newspaper articles appear true, or at least not completely falsified.
Most articles, however, occupy the borderlands between true and false. Even false statements -- like the retracted Times sentence -- can retain a ring of truth. And even true statements, arranged cleverly, can perpetuate ignorance.
Journalistic objectivity is a myth -- otherwise you wouldn't be able to parse suburban D.C. neighborhoods by checking doorsteps for a) The Washington Post, or b) The Washington Times. Facts are malleable. A separate editorial page is somewhat redundant.
You have to trust your journalist to trust your news. And I don't trust any journalist -- including myself -- so rather than give up entirely, it's best to just read as many sources as possible, gleaning a murky sense of current affairs in the spaces between newspapers.
In this time of international turmoil, a broad range of perspectives is particularly vital. (I pray that The Daily Pennsylvanian is not your only source of world news.) So here's a few other options -- a guide to responsible online news-reading. And, if only to emphasize my point that all newspapers are biased, this list is more or less tailored to my own sensibility. You can find the Web site of the National Review yourself.
• www.newsnow.co.uk: This British site gathers together links to news sources around the world on a topic-by-topic basis. On the right-hand side, you'll see a drop-down menu labeled "In The News This Week." From that menu, select "Iraq," and you'll find yourself with an up-to-the-minute list of articles from the British press, mainstream American press, local American press, Indian press, Israeli press -- papers from all over, running the partisan gamut from right to left.
The site's mission statement is to "add value to the overwhelming volume of online news and information through appropriate organization." It's certainly comprehensive and particularly useful, letting you judge the validity of each of the sources set in relief against each other.
• www.antiwar.com: Crazy liberal upstart site, right? Actually, the managing editor is a Republican. And another editor's latest book boasts an introduction by none other than Pat Buchanan.
Wait, why am I telling you about this site again? Actually, it's a pretty solid source. Like Newsnow, it provides links to other media outlets, many of them mainstream, and establishes a comprehensive argument against war, or against intervention, probably depending on which editor you're talking to. I find the site's explicitly libertarian affiliations somewhat suspect, but, nonetheless, it's a good way to find a consolidated body of single-topic information from a variety of sources.
• www.commondreams.org: Common Dreams also collects articles from a variety of publications, but, more important, it offers a massive list of links to news services, periodicals, radio and television stations, and individual commentators. Its "Progressive Newswire" consolidates information from a variety of progressive organizations, among them Greenpeace, Churches for Middle East Peace, the National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce and Amnesty International.
• www.buzzflash.com: According to its mission statement, Buzzflash "provides headlines, news, and commentary for a geographically-diverse, politically-savvy, pro-democracy, anti-hypocrisy Web audience, reaching nearly a million visitors a month and growing."
These folks are a tad more aggressively partisan than, say, Newsnow, but it's no www.democraticunderground.com. (Although you should check that one out too.) Buzzflash reins in a lot of stories, stays up to date and has a cool logo.
And there's more. If you go to these sites, you'll find links to dozens of other services that are trying to fill in the gaps. Individual papers may be inadequate, but a glance at one issue across many sources will always be better than that quick perusal of The New York Times online before you run out the door.
Dan Fishback is a senior American Identities major from Olney, Md.
