Source: Journalism is going down the tubes

Call me old-fashioned, but I loathe where we - and by we, I mean in the media - are in our news gathering techniques. I went to ESPN.com today because I was going to write a blog entry about a Brazilian soccer fan who was beaten to death, only to see that three of the top stories began with the word "Source."

Now of course we've seen this obligatory phrase a million times: "According to sources close to the situation ..." or "A person with knowledge of the deal ..." But that person never is named because he or she doesn't have authorization, or that deal hasn't been announced. Most of the time the information coming from the source is right.

But there are instances when it seems a bit fishy. For example, in the most recent issue of Sports Illustrated, there's a story about how Pac-10 teams have faked injuries during a game to slow the Oregon no-huddle offense. School officials and coaches have denied such claims, but a sportswriter for the Oregonian, citing "a person within the Cal Bears program" said that was part of the game plan.

Now why would a person within in the Cal Bears program tell that to a reporter from the opponent's home newspaper? I mean, is it possible that this writer could, you know, just have made this up? Why not? It makes for a juicy story and sells newspapers.

Washington Post sportswriter Mike Wise last summer was suspended for deliberately tweeting something false. He wrote that "Ben Roethlisberger will get (suspended for) five games, I'm told." His source was "a casino employee outside Lake Tahoe." Wise did this as an experiment to see what the media world was coming to. When he fessed up and said it was a hoax, readers, fellow media members and his bosses didn't take kindly.

Personally, I don't see much of a difference between that and real "news." Maybe he should have just stuck to his guns. Nobody seems to push the issue too much when you're wrong. See, the problem with today's media is that the person who gets it first (not always the person who gets it right) wins.