CNN's Betrayal and the Problem When Journalists Make Mistakes

Real journalists seek the truth and aim to deliver it in as impartial a way as possible. And sometimes, they screw up. Those issues tend to be high profile, as in the story about CNN's "betrayal" of its audience through their lapse in journalistic ethics related to the Cuomo brothers. The idea that one sibling could interview another in an impartial way was obviously flawed.

Yet the bigger problem is how mistakes like this are interpreted by a public that has been manipulated by self-serving politicians to already believe that all journalists are liars. When you believe everyone is lying to you, any evidence of falsehood reinforces your mistrust of the entire system. So CNN's problem has become the media's problem.