Are you practising safe source criticism? 🙂
I do but it’s easier for me.
I live in a very secular country (we like science here) and I’m a journalist.
Source criticism is a MAJOR part of the journalistic education.
Asking for sources, asking why a person says something, asking if anyone is to gain from telling a lie, asking who controls the information and so on, is very important.
By now you should have asked yourself why I write this. 😉
So I ask questions. That is almost all I do. That is what it says on my work description.
“We will pay you for asking questions”.
They also pay me for asking the right questions to the right people.
Reading, listening and watching media today I see a lot of so called journalists that have stopped asking questions.
Many have completely abandoned source criticism.
Others couldn’t care less if their stories was true or not, they’re just in it for the money.
So, I have made a decision.
From now and on I will not refer to myself as a journalist.
I just can’t stand for a group of people that tell lies all day long.
Yes, I know I’m generalizing. Not all journalists are bad, but there is only one logical way to know for sure that I don’t support liars.
That is to stop working for and inside a corrupt business.
I will find some other kind of work.
Maybe a place where honesty is rewarded.
Or maybe that is like searching for El Dorado?
Never stop asking questions, never stop being sceptic.
The God Extinguisher 