Press Box raises an interesting question about reporters admitting they’ve gotten a story wrong.

“Why is it so hard for newspapers that have climbed out onto a limb in reporting a story to turn back once they hear the wood cracking?”

It harks back to Walter Cronkite’s signature phrase at the end of every show “and that’s the way it is.” But sometimes that isn’t the way it is and Rather (yes a big R) than bite the bullet and admit they might be wrong, journalists try to sweep it under the rug at the expense of readers.

This isn’t to say that newspapers are lazy and don’t care. We need to understand that when a reporter turns in a story “for the record,” what they are indeed handing in is really just everything they could dig up in X amount of time “for the record.” And being just one person, they aren’t always going to get at everything. But they should be able to admit that and open themselves up to a network of concerned and informed readers.

While I expect more and more newspapers to profess the following, it’s also important to realize this is an ongoing debate and the critics have arguments that should not be swept aside, but rather addressed wholeheartedly.