It is currently a broken system. I don't think there has ever been a time in which trust in news sources has been lower that it is right now, and this is having all sorts of negative impacts in society. One of the problems is that news outlets don't have the right incentives; back in the time of printed paper you would spend your dollar on what you would consider a "trusted" news source, nowadays much of "news" is clickbait. The majority of what I see in online news aggregators today, would have been considered unacceptably low quality back when I was still in the field of journalism (2005-ish)

What incentive does a journalist have? Do they have an incentive to publish a story that is sensational when the story could be either true or false?

> Do they have an incentive to publish a story that is sensational when the story could be either true or false?

It's obvious from US political coverage, especially since the 2016 election, that the answer to this is: Yes, journalists have incentives to publish sensationalist stories fortified with "anonymous sources" that may be falsified and have little to do with reality for the sake of ratings, clicks and the ilk, as well as pushing either their own or their employers' political agenda(s).

I'll say this clearly: this is true of all media, left, right & everything else.

The media has repeatedly demonstrated that they are just as corrupt as the politicians that they are supposedly holding accountable. The difference is: no journalists have gone to jail for their corruption. And no, I'm not calling for an end to a free press. We, their audience, need to hold them accountable by depriving them of the funds to keep their corruption active. We should demand our journalists hold the same level of integrity we wish of our politicians.

The journalist has an incentive to maintain and advance their career. That's really the primary incentive at play here. There are no rewards for integrity or honesty.

Okay. I do not trust this journalist.

So you'd rather trust a complete blank than book a maybe in your mind? Just don't trust shit you read on the news, this has been true since the inception of print media.

If you want to stay informed and intellectual, a lot of maybes will have to compete for space in your brain.

But over the last decade journalists, as a group, have taught me not to trust them.