Thank you to Scarce for grabbing a photo:
CNN has a new tagline (a far more accurate tagline, if you ask me, than "America's Most Trusted Name in News"). Rick Sanchez just literally said it to me, "Since when is telling the truth news?"
I'll tell you when, Rick.
When you are reporting that Richard Blumenthal "lied" about his military service, the fact that he told the truth in the exact same fucking speech... well... that is news. When a truth told is directly relevant to the story that your "news" organization is running, then it is news.
So I was taken aback when I asked Rich Sanchez why he did not play the opening part of Blumenthal's speech and he replied, "Since when is telling the truth news?"
But this statement is exemplary of everything that is wrong with mainstream news outlets. They are more focused on the entertaining stories than they are on the important ones. Telling the truth is not news, because it does not get the same ratings. A lie is way sexier, and gosh-darnit, we will not have the truth getting in the way.
We deserve better. We deserve a media that puts truth above everything else.
Full Disclosure: I am a reporter for Sum of Change, and we believe that telling the truth is newsworthy.
UPDATE: Obligatory rec list thanks, they say you always remember the first time!