How about Re-Engineering our Distrusted Media?

So CNN reports alleged racist "quotes" Rush Limbaugh made without fact-checking them. But it does fact check a parody done by Saturday Night Live about President Obama. Public trust of the media is at all time lows, because of bias and shoddy reporting like this.

Meanwhile, my and many other local newspapers are dying for lack of readership.

How would an engineer solve this problem? Or an entrepreneur? I asked myself these questions this morning as I looked over the tabloid rack at the local supermarket.

How about if the media began doing what engineers and entrepreneurs do all the time? As I am trying to do with my own small business ventures on the model of The E-Myth Revisited, by Michael Gerber.

That is, put processes in place to standardize where there is variation, and remove "bias" surprises, so that the media consumer knows more of what to expect.

How?

These days, a self-policing "ombudsmen" reporting on the media outlet itself is about as far as many media outlets go. And that weekly or monthly cleanup comes usually too late for our rapid fire news cycle. And, quite frankly, such people and stories are boring.

How about making the processes by which stories are written more transparent to the consumer? How about posting them in a wiki, for ongoing modification, and maybe even public comment, or task-taking when the story goes awry. And linking to them in each and every story written for additional comment?

For example, a captured process might say, if a story is about X controversy (abortion, taxes, government spending), then the following must be included.

You get the idea. The first tries and "captures" of these processes in a media team wiki, for example, will be halting and have mistakes. But think about what it would mean if CNN, or Fox News or MSNBC created processes that the public could compare the stories against, for quality and consistency!

If we allow "advocacy journalism" on television or in print, another process could describe how it should be clearly delineated to the consumer at the beginning.

I think that would improve the quality of journalism, restore public confidence, and also sharpen the discussion in areas where "opinion" is tolerable.

Given the lousy shape of the media, I'm surprised it has not been done already.