Sarah Palin and "Gotcha Journalism"

To begin this assignment, I used the Google, Yahoo, and MSN search engines and searched for "Sarah Palin and gotcha journalism."

The results included news articles, blogs, opinion pieces, and many YouTube videos. The videos either provided a link to an actual interview with Katie Couric, McCain, and Palin, or Internet spoofs making fun of the incident.

The first result from Google is the following link:
http://www.jossip.com/sarah-palins-big-problem-with-gotcha-journalism-its-actual-journalism-20081001/
This site is designed to be a gossip blog. Titled "David Hauslaib's 'Jossip:' the gossip's gossip sheet," I knew before reading a word that my search would not yield reliable results from this site. The blogger provided a basic background of what happened to cause the uproar, but he showed a clear bias against the McCain-Palin campaign.

Google's second result:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brett-ashley-mckenzie/the-gotcha-journalist-an_b_131600.html
This article from the Huffington Post featured author Brett Ashley McKenzie's interview with Michael Rovito, the man who originally questioned Palin in Philadelphia. While the writer's questions were objective, Rovito provided answers that leads a reader to reject Palin as a vice presidential nominee. I found it to be an interesting opinion piece.

Google's third result:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/29/mccain-palin-joint-interv_n_130412.html
This is another article from the Huffington Post. In this, writer Sam Stein tries to write objectively, stating that both parties are coming under scrutiny for things they have said. I write 'tries' because he makes an effort to defend Obama's statements and put them into context, but he does not do the same with Palin's statements.

Google's fourth result:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/29/eveningnews/main4487826.shtml
By far the most reliable site my search yielded, this piece features the partial transcript of the interview in question. CBS is a reliable news site because it presents news in an objective manner and has the authority to do so.

Google's fifth result:
http://irregulartimes.com/index.php/archives/2008/09/30/voters-do-gotcha-journalism-with-sarah-palin-says-mccain/
The author of this commentary clearly has a bias against McCain and Palin, even referring to Palin as McCain's "ventriloquist dummy." This article is unreliable for information because of this bias. You get the gist of the information, but it is portrayed in an unfair light by an author who does not have the authority to make these statements.

My Yahoo search resulted in many of the same articles I have listed above. Here are some different articles that I found interesting.
Yahoo result #1:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1075000/gotcha_journalism_to_blame_for_the.html
This article defines "gotcha journalism" and goes into the double-standard of journalism. The author talks about how each political party has used gotcha journalism to shed light on the other's mistakes. It is objective and informative, but not exactly what I was looking for, as it doesn't go into the details behind Palin's encounter.

Yahoo result #2:
http://thatsrightnate.com/2008/09/29/sarah-palin-victim-of-gotcha-journalism/
I liked the sarcastic tone of this blog. The author reveals a clear bias against Palin. Although funny, the site is unreliable because it does not present information from a scholarly source; it is a personal opinion on the matter.

MSN result #1:
http://www.observer.com/2008/media/interview-couric-palin-and-mccain-complain-gotcha-journalism
I found this site to be very reliable. The New York Observer is very well known, and the information within it is presented in a scholarly, authoritative manner. The only bias here is in the readers' comments at the end of the piece.

While most of my searches resulted in similar articles, I was surprised that more reliable sources were not shown. Most of my results featured blogs, commentary/opinion pieces, and gossip websites. Although these sites are interesting, they are not always reliable--or accurate. News sites are the most accurate because they are objective and cite authorities on the subject.

Finding reliable sources is tricky, especially when using the Internet. Many of the sites I found contained articles written by authors who seemed knowledgable about the subject, but most of them had nothing to back up their information. Cited sources and objectivity are two of the most important qualities I look for when trying to find reliable information online.