Why questionable facts go unchallenged by the press

DocBrain has often had a beef with newspapers that print highly biased and patently untrue stories. www.gamedaily.com recently published a list of why news media presents untrue and slanted articles. While they were referring to makers of video games, it is applicable in all forms of media.

1. We want to believe those who we like. So, if a liberal politician says something to a New York Times reporter, she will believe it without question.
2. We don't want to cross our sources, for fear of losing our connection or losing favor. As in any job, it is best to press the "easy button". If someone will feed you information and then you question its validity, they may exclude you in the future, making your job that much harder.
3. It is easier to accept what we are told than to actually do the research ourselves.
4. Most news agencies do not have the resources or time to find out the truth and just enthusiatically report what they are told.
5. It is what everyone else is doing.
6. Lies make better stories. Modern news is about telling stories, not about conveying facts. Stories have heroes, villains and victims, peppered with an occasional fact.
7. We may feel like we are in over our heads.
8. We may have no reasonable choice. Once, DocBrain noted that a front page article described Hamas as a group that provided after school programs for children. DocBrain called the newspaper's editor who agreed that the description of Hamas was incomplete, to say the least, but stated that the story came from their wire service and they had only two choices: run it or not. Editing the story was not allowed. So, in order to provide the information in the story, the entire story, complete with its half truths and lies, had to be run.