Value of reporting facts — and sources

Mike Wolcott’s Sunday column recently reflected on the state of the nation’s newspapers and provided insight for me into why today’s national news media has become “fake news.”

Newspapers are supposed to provide readers with “facts,” not “truth.” Indeed, if accurate, verified facts are supplied, readers will have what they need to determine truth. But newspapers have stopped verifying their reports and facts are increasingly replaced with opinions, guesses and hearsay. Mike feels that this is due to the financial decimation of newsrooms over the last 30 years, which has left staffs so hollowed out, there is no one left to verify anything. I feel activist editors have taken it unto themselves to determine what the “truth” is and report accordingly.

But, regardless of the reason, the result is the same. Fake news. Stories must reveal their sources, without which, the reader is left with no way of testing the stories veracity. More and more, stories are based upon the accounts of anonymous “persons familiar with the situation.” What kind of inane doubletalk is that? When reporters stop giving us facts and instead, start telling us what we should think, they have ceased to be reporters.

Compare the stories in our E-R by local reporters with the stories by national newspapers and wire services. E-R reporters report facts and sources. National reporters offer commentary and opinion. How can anyone form an intelligent opinion when we are provided with nothing but “fake news.” — David White, Oroville