The Only Reporters You Can Trust

After Newsweek retracted a story because of pressure from the Whitehouse or because it wasn’t true (I say Whitehouse).

After the whole Jeff Gannon slash James Guckert thing.

After those other reporters who have been found on the Whitehouse’s payroll.

I’ve made a decision.

From now on I will only trust three types of reporters:

1) Video game and technology reporters.

2) Sports Reporters.

3) The British Press.

This life changing decision suddenly seems so damn obvious.

See the British are smarter than us or, at least, less media savvy. And sports and video games just don’t matter at all.

Most important, though, none of them are afraid to ask difficult questions. Or ask for a response to outright criticism during an interview.

This means Tony Blair agreeing to a televised interview with a reporter who unequivocally loathes him.

This means Barry Bonds – unfortunately guilty until proven innocent – avoiding the media because he knows he won’t be able to avoid questions about steroids. And it means some of the most entertaining press conferences you can imagine. (You almost feel sorry for the athletes... you have reporters willing to ask anything and many athletes who aren’t shrewd enough to not answer everything.)

This means Reggie Fils-Aime being asked why Nintendo didn’t reveal anything substantial about the Revolution, and if they can do anything to fix the perception problem core gamers have of the big N.

I’m not, of course, saying that all video game, sports and British journalists are great.

They all have their little controversies.

And there are a lot of terrible sports writers.

What I’m saying is that if the political equivalent of Peter Rojas, Kevin Pereira, Marc Stein or that British reporter sat in front of George W. Bush, someone may actually ask:

“Mr. President... why did you knowingly deceive the United States in order to gain support for a military action against Saddam Hussein and Iraq.”