I Just Stepped in a Pile of Crap

It's called The NewStandard.

I read and blogged about this article smearing the Chicago Minuteman Project.

What really disturbed me about the article was the complete lack of effort to report news, rather than conveying an opinion. On a scale of journalistic integrity, I'd give it a -2. So I poked around the website a little to find out what they are all about, and why they might be so comfortable publishing this crap and having the nerve to call it news.

Here's what I found in their FAQ section:

What is The NewStandard?
The NewStandard is a unique, independent hard news website. Dedicated to current events reporting and investigative journalism, TNS provides up-to-date news from a journalistic perspective that emphasizes the public interest.

Hard news? Hardly. This particular article read like a high school opinion piece. Investigative journalism? This generally involves, well, investigating a story -- not just publishing the inflammatory comments from one side of an issue.

Why should I trust what I read in The NewStandard?
NewStandard editors engage in thorough fact-checking of all full-length articles published on the website. For news briefs and news reports, sources are attributed and linked whenever possible.

"They broke the law and broke into our country," said Chicago Minuteman member Rosa Pullido...

Her name is Rosanna Pulido. Evidently that's a fact the author failed to check.

The Chicago Minuteman Project, which is modeled after a vigilante group...

The project is part of the national group, not "modeled after" it, and, as popular as it has become to throw the word around, is not a "vigilante group." That's a fact the author could check in the dictionary.

In a press release, he (Oberweis) blamed the contractor and said he would fire the outfit if the allegations turn out to be true.

Well, if this had been investigated so as to present both sides' stories fully, the author might have found this, which fully explains what Oberweis says he's found out about the Ramirez/Ibarra claim.

Why should I trust what I read in The NewStandard?
NewStandard editors engage in thorough fact-checking of all full-length articles published on the website. For news briefs and news reports, sources are attributed and linked whenever possible.
Read through the article for yourself. You won't find anything to back up the "facts" of the article. Note to the author: see the blue, underlined words in this post? They're called links -- those things that The NewStandard claims to provide "whenever possible." Maybe you were just having a bad day.

Is The NewStandard’s coverage biased?
Unlike the staff at most news organizations, editors and journalists at The NewStandard make no claims of being “unbiased.”

How does The NewStandard choose its journalists?
As The NewStandard is dedicated to providing consistent, fair and accurate reporting, its journalists are chosen carefully.

Well, which is it -- biased coverage, or fair and accurate reporting? Is it news, or isn't it?

Never mind. I only had to wade through a couple of stories to realize that The NewStandard, showing an ironic lack of standards regarding the news, has decided to go with the biased pile of crap.

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Jim Oberweis