Thursday, May 21, 2009

The guild is more important than the truth

Selena Roberts is on tour for her thinly sourced hatchet job on A-Rod. She hit a few bumps in the road when a few reviewers and journalists (like Jason Whitlock) brought up the Duke lacrosse case and Roberts's vicious, fact-challenged attacks on the lax players. (KC Johnson has documented Roberts's lies and evasions about the Durham hoax on his blog)

Honest journalists like Whitlock are rare. Most print outlets accept Robert's credibility without a second thought. (Apparently, Selena is clubbable).

Even more remarkable, plenty of outlets are running interence for the reporter.

This interview in the Arizona Republic is so fawning and cozy it confirms everything bloggers have ever suspected about the guild mentality of "Professional Journalists Who Have Implicit Credibility Unlike Bloggers Who Cannot Be Trusted To Dig Up The Truth."

Because of Rodriguez's stature, Roberts has become a lightning rod for broadcast commentators and bloggers. Roberts, who left the Star Tribune in 1996 to work at the New York Times and now is a columnist for Sports Illustrated, chatted recently with her old friend, TV critic Neal Justin, from her spot in the eye of the storm.


And here is how her old her old friend Neal Justin starts the hard hitting interview:

Question: There has been some negative stuff out there about you and your credibility. How are you dealing with that?

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