From an article in USA Today regarding the Project for Excellence in Journalism’s State of the Media report:
“The 600-page report also finds that the traditional “journalism of verification” — in which reporters check facts — is ceding ground to a new “journalism of assertion,” in which information is offered on radio and cable talk shows and via Internet bloggers, with little or no attempt to verify the facts.”
I’m not sure that Dan Rather would agree…
We had a brief discussion regarding authority during a break out session at the eContent conference yesterday. I think there is ample evidence that the established media brands can no longer assume that their audience considers them “authoritative” because they have “checked all of their facts”. In general trust has been eroding over the years and as alternative media sources become more popular, the technical mechanisms built into online systems such as blogs and wikis will allow us to gauge the authority of our sources.
“Rosenstiel (the director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism) says the media have to carve out a new role for themselves. Instead of being so-called gatekeepers of information — deciding what the public needs or does not need to know — traditional media may have to evolve into “authenticators, to tell people: ‘What here in this increasingly crazy world can I trust?’ It’s easier said than done.”
from: Report: Non-traditional media gain ground, consumers ; Fact-checking ceding to ‘journalism of assertion’ by Peter Johnson
source: USA Today, March 14, 2005.
via: 
HighBeam™ Research