I looked through the 3 news websites that were posted on blackboard. After going through all of them I decided that they all have pretty much the same information. If I had to pick a difference I would say that CNN’s website looks the most “professional” out of the three. Fox’s website and MSNBC’s website just did not look quite as serious to me. Never the less though, they still seemed to all have similar information that I would say is reliable.
As for journalists who write blogs who used to write for major news sources, I do not think this makes their news information anymore reliable than anything that comes from anyone else writing a blog. I think that their writing may sound better and flow more nicely; it is probably written better and has better grammar. However, they are still bogging and voicing their own opinions so I would say in this sense it makes them every bit as reliable as anyone else who is keeping a blog. I do not think people who used to be professional journalists who now keep blogs post information that is more credible than amateurs writing blogs.
It is hard to say whether or not information from blogs is more or less reliable than the information you get from the traditional major news sources. In one sense, when you get your news from the major sources you assume it is correct because they have a good reputation of getting you accurate news on time. However, you never know what they may be hiding. They may only be telling half-truths to make you believe whatever you want them to believe. In another sense, it is hard to believe things on blogs because you may not have any idea who the person writing it is. They may not be whom they say they are and they may just be making up stories on their blog. The other side of that is, however, like the people in Iraq, they are really there getting a first hand look. The people form the major news sources are not necessarily getting a first hand look, where as some of the people blogging are. All in all, I would say that when getting your news, you need to use common sense to decide what is true and what is made up. Both blogs and the major new sources are not always completely accurate. However, I think a lot of the time people can use their head to decipher truth from fiction.
