Gossip

Here is a thought, the germ of which I will not take credit for:

While journalists may claim that what they do is serious stuff, backed up by fact checking and other independent sources, their readers generally treat it as gossip.

So what is the problem with that?

The problem is that gossip tends to have a lower threshhold to credibility than what reporters seem to think is news. Now this may not be such a problem except that reporters and editors often descend to the level of gossip in their stories. That is the new also offers unsubstiated statements, offers opinion, offers the bias of reporter or editor. Now none of these are problematic in themselves. What is problematic is that journalists offer these statememts without qualification, or as fact, or place them in a context where it is not easy to determine their significance.

When the news becomes gossip, gossip may come to supplant the news. Perhaps that may partially account for the popularity of blogs.