Apologies for a short diary in advance.
Today I was looking through a diary (it doesn't matter which one really), where a diarist posted on what appeared to be an important topic. It reported on a recent news report, with some interesting quotes. As I was interested, I clicked through and discovered...it was from the AP.
I posted a comment expressing concerns about the source. Then Meteor Blades posted another comment about the story last week concerning Obama's alleged rejection of all current proposals concerning Afghanistan. He pointed out that the story was also from the AP, and was similarly unsourced. I missed that it was from the AP last week (it might have been there, I don't remember), and it got me thinking.
Regular DKos readers are well aware of the many problems with the AP. Those who are not might consider looking over recent diaries concerning the AP.
So here is my modest proposal. Whenever anyone links to an outside news source, include a description of that source in the text of the diary. That way we can all quickly judge the veracity of the source without clicking through. Many already do this, and perhaps it would be best if we all did. Just to be clear, I will provide an example of what I mean below.
Bad
According to a recent story, Obama is planning to make concessions to the Japanese concerning the presence of a Marine base in Okinawa.
Good
According to a recent story in the New York Times, Obama is planning to make concessions to the Japanese concerning the presence of a Marine base in Okinawa.
In Meteor Blade's comment, he noted that we tend to believe those unsourced news accounts that confirm our biases. This is a real problem for all of us. While I do not think that citing sources in the text of diaries will solve this problem, it might help a little bit.