May 06, 2011
Reporters have full time jobs reporting the news. This means that they are supposed to have the time to learn about the issues on which they are reporting. This is in contrast to their audience who generally have full time jobs doing something else.
This means that reporting both sides of an issue does not mean writing “Joe said the X” and “Jane said not X.” It means that reporters are supposed to take a few minutes to find out whether or not X is true, and then share this information with readers.
This issue comes up with regard to Republican plans to “drill here, drill now” in response to the recent run up in gas prices. The Republicans claim that if we just allowed the oil companies to drill everywhere they want, it would get the price of gas back down to an acceptable level. Environmentalists and some Democrats have argued that given the size of the world oil market, any additional drilling can only have a minimal impact on oil prices.
The NYT, WAPO, and NPR have all reported this one as a he said/she said leaving it to their audience to determine who is right. By contrast, the Huffington Post did a bit of homework. They talked to some experts in the field. These experts told their audience that even if we make very generous assumptions about the potential increase in domestic oil production it will take at least 5 years to notably increase output and that it would have minimal impact on gas prices.
This is the way a real news organization deals with issues.
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