Steve,
Your view of the news is rather postmodernist. Things actually happen, and a news source can actually report the facts of a situation. Just as a transcript can be accurate or inaccurate, certain opinions are just wrong. If someone stated that Abe Lincoln or FDR endorsed a candidate today, that would be false regardless of the spin. Stating that Ted Kennedy is a US Senator from Massachusetts is a true statement.
It is possible to make a news report of purely true statements. “Israeli official claim that a suicide bombing killed 3 soldiers at a checkpoint earlier today. No group has claimed responsibility for the bombing” Both of these are verifiable true statements. You can choose your source for the context and analysis, but the reporter provides a verifiable, factual summary of the events that occurred.
Blogs use news reports as the standard for true events that aren’t witnessed by the blogger. Only about 5% of blog posts actually report on events seen directly by the blogger.
