Who would you rather trust - the BBC or a blogger?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/29/bbc-bloggers-journalism

Why, then, mourn the passing of the hack? The best reason for wanting my colleagues to survive is that serious reporters and broadcasters offer a guarantee that what they say is true. If they stray, their editors impose journalistic standards and insist on objectivity. They may not have the best or fullest story or the most vivid account, but readers should be able to assume their work is reliable, while a blogger's commitment to objectivity can never be assumed.

The BBC offers the most comprehensive guarantee. Politicians and lobbyists want to influence it more than any other news organisation because, despite occasional lapses, its reporters have earned the right to be believed.

The corporation should be becoming the most important news institution not merely in Britain but the world. The technological changes that are wrecking the profitability of newspapers and commercial TV in all advanced countries mean that many will think hard before sending a reporter to cover the next coup in Thailand. The BBC, whose £3bn income is guaranteed by the state, should have no comparable worries.

The net is partly to blame for the downgrading of journalism, but not, for once, because it is destroying a news organisation's business model. The BBC has willingly poured hundreds of millions into developing its online sites and iPlayer, while getting as far away as possible from the democratic hopes of Shirky. He justifies his enthusiasm by describing the writers and networkers who have used technology to campaign against abuses of power. In other words, he cares about content as much as process. The BBC is so uninterested in content that it is sacking its content providers or journalists as we used to call them.

eom

we get far more of the truth from the Beeb than our cousins do from the American news media.

The only real news we get in the US these days comes from abroad. I am so glad to live within range of Canada's CBC. And the local NPR station carries several hours of the BBC each week.

Okay, I confess, I'm addicted to Kim and Aggie. And Graham Norton. And I was fascinated by "The Making of Me: John Barrowman." And Dr. Who. And Torchwood before it was ruined. And Primeval (time travelling dinosaurs. enough said).

I do watch news on BBCAmerica, but honesty requires admitting most of the time that's NOT what I'm watching on it.