Is TV News Making More Mistakes? Or Are They Just More Obvious?

Is TV news making more mistakes? Or are they just more obvious?

There are at least two possibilities at work, both involving the crush of tweeted, Tumbl'd and wall-posted information that besieges anyone with access to a laptop or a nice phone.

• One: The old-school, TV elite are making more mistakes because of the pressure of competing not just with each other, but with the unwashed, unedited and un-vetted masses breaking stories from their parents' attics.
• Two: Traditional journalists are making the same number of mistakes they always have. But the same motley confederation competing with them to break news is also holding them more accountable than ever before. That, fans of accuracy would agree, would be a good thing.
• It could be a combination of both. And it remains to be seen whether that will lead to a golden age of accountability in which everyone is kept honest, or an Idiocracy in which people throw up their hands and refuse to believe anything.