Trust some of what you hear and none of what you read....

As long as I can remember, I have placed a certain amount of trust in what I read in sources such as the Wall Street Journal, News week, Business Week; and what I have seen and heard on shows such as NiteLine, DateLine, Blah, Blah Blah... You get the picture. I know it's old news now, but Dan Rather was once a person with whom I would take at his word quite often. That's before he was caught in a bold face lie that cost him his job and his dignity.

What happened to journalistic integrity???

Now every time I read or hear the old adage "from an unnamed source" I ponder whether the source truly exists, or is someone trying to pull the wool over my eyes with the shroud of journalistic integrity. What ever happened to doing your homework. Is the business of news so competitive now that they have resorted to lying to the public to get an edge. Recently we saw that the Muslim community became enraged as a result of a story that reported a United States interrogator flushed a Quran down the toilet. The Muslim community had every right be very upset about such news, for the Quran is the most sacred text in the Muslim faith. As a result however several people died. The irony; however, is that the publishers of the story then retracted, stating that they had gotten the information incorrect. Is this some kind of sick joke. The rectraction certainly did not bring back those who lost their lives in the roiting the ensued after the story was broken, and it certainly did nothing to increase sentiment for the "American Image" in the Muslim world. This story did nothing but hurt people and further divide a divided world.

I think from now on, I'll stick to reading the wisdom from fortune cookies and get my information from a trusted source... My common sense.