Journalism is now the second draft of history

The unavoidable truth is that first draft of history is no longer written in tomorrow’s newspaper. Instead, it’s tapped out on new and social media, which is thick with rumor and conspiracy. There’s little journalists can do about crap on the internet; taking aim at disinformation is like firing a machine-gun at an unruly flock of birds. What we can do is to get our own house in order. Amid the ocean of information out there, our worry as journalists should not so much be about people believing everything they read on the internet but that they might end up believing none of it. — James Harkin, Columbia Journalism Review