MeMo points to this interesting look at the same event from two pairs of eyes.
I think she's on to something with this:
Here would be an interesting project for a journalism student: Track the bad information you get in the course of this news story. Urban legends thrive in a vacuum, and rumors fester. Reporters learn to be skeptical consumers of information all kinds -- I remember the sorts of stories that trickled back from 9/11, a good portion of them ultimately untrue.
Is it possible to cast all politics aside (thus disqualifying Columbia Journalism Review) and objectively rate the accuracy of news sources? Is there an objective way to measure the reliability of a particular writer or correspondent, tracking their career like an athlete?
DAN RATHER
Position: Local Correspondent
Batting Avg: .873
Position: Local Anchor
Batting Avg: .888
Position: National Correspondent
Batting Avg: .573
Position: Network Anchor
Batting Avg: .500
Position: Managing Editor, Newsmagazine
Batting Avg: .173
What units do you measure Trust in? (Epinions measured then by trusters as well as trusters of trusters in a complex formula nobody ever really liked) Or do you measure them in units of Horseshit? (The Epinions Distrust list factor)
Do you separate editorial content and news like you separate switch-hitters from the left and the right? Can you add in factors for news management, where a correspondent teamed with a particular producer or news editor can generate stats as well:
DAN RATHER and MARY MAPES
Double-plays: 10
Combined errors: 15
I'd suggest measuring it in units of Geraldos or Capones. One Geraldo equals the amount of bullshit you found in his hyped-up Capone's Vault story.
Perhaps this measurement in Geraldos can be applied to politicians, where "Bush Lied, People Died" can be easily converted into a number and then stacked up against Ted Kennedy's willful vehicular manslaughter and coverup, Bush-41's failure to "finish the job" in 1991, Bill Clinton's hand-wringing which led to the death of 800,000 Rwandans, Kofi's stewardship over millions of slaughtered refugees worldwide, etc.
I'm sure someone's working on it for bloggers, beyond the X-watch.blogspot.com factor. (No need to measure my Geraldo Factor. My domain name is my disclaimer.)