Rx for Info Overload

Adult dosage: Take two papers and a website daily—add grains of salt

Comments (0) By Sydney H. Schanberg Tuesday, Jul 19 2005

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Some final notes. More often than is healthy, the press becomes a herd, focusing on one story and one story only until the public is begging for respite. That's been happening with the Karl Rove story. And then suddenly last week, sorcerer George Bush waved his Rove-crafted wand and nominated a new man for the Supreme Court, John Roberts. En masse, the Washington press corps deserted the besieged Rove and descended on Roberts. The silence about Rove continues as I write. But never fear. As soon as the Senate confirms Roberts, he will disappear into the news void and Rove will have all the attention again. This is called now-you-see-it-now-you-don't journalism.

Finally, since honest journalists and the companies they work for make mistakes fairly regularly, like other professions and the rest of humanity, one thing the consumer should look for is whether a news company is good at acknowledging mistakes in a timely and clear and prominent manner. That's a news organization you want to include in your daily diet.