Problematic Reporting

Saying that the age of mainstream media is over is nothing new for me. Perhaps the biggest reason is the near-nonexistance of objective reporting. Whatever happened to reporting what was observed?

Show me almost any mainstream news article, and I'll show you and example. Here is a great one from the Associated Press:

"The Northwest Passage runs from the Atlantic through the Arctic to the Pacific. Global warming is melting the passage — which is only navigable during a slim window in the summer — and exposing unexplored fishing stocks and an attractive shipping route." BETH DUFF-BROWN, Associated Press Writer

Global warming is doing it? Did Ms. Duff-Brown observe this? This is fact?

And where is her editor?

Far more objective would have been something like, "The passage has been melting steadily since 1979, according the Arctic Station expert John Smith." Or even, "Climate experts from the European Geological Survey believe that global warming is melting the passage..." Don't tell us your opinion, report someone else's and tell us how qualified they are to comment.

Reporting is a lost art.