Back in 2008, British journalist Nick Davies was making noises[1] about how marketplace dynamics impact news standards: I commissioned research from speciali

Back in 2008, British journalist Nick Davies was making noises[1] about how marketplace dynamics impact news standards: I commissioned research from specialists at Cardiff University, who surveyed more than 2,000 UK news stories from the four quality dailies (Times, Telegraph, Guardian, Independent) and the Daily Mail. They found two striking things. First, when they tried to trace the origins of their “facts”, they discovered that only 12% of the stories were wholly composed of material researched by reporters. With 8% of the stories, they just couldn’t be sure. The remaining 80%, they found, were wholly, mainly or partially constructed from second-hand material, provided by news agencies and by the public relations industry. Second, when they looked for evidence that these “facts” had been thoroughly checked, they found this was happening in only 12% of the stories. 12% of stories had been fact-checked - I wonder how that number will fare in the coming "big opportunity for the news industry [...] to increase its market size 100x AND drop prices 10X"? 1: http://www.nickdavies.net/2008/02/05/introducing-flat-earth-news/ http://www.nickdavies.net/2008/02/05/introducing-flat-earth-...