Nobody will ever take Dan Rather’s place with me. Too bad his corporate masters at Viacom had a price on his scalp.
Rachel Maddow is by far the best and brightest of the opinion/news mixes.
This is the correct answer. I used to have some respect for Brian Williams, but since that interview in January with the Bush foreign policy team where he let Cheney get by with the most egregious lies, I have little use for him.
Who are you calling a reporter, and in what sense am I being asked to “trust” any reporter?
Most of the people in this thread who are being hailed as “trusted” aren’t really reporters at all- they’re just commentators that SDMB regulars happen to like and agree with. Bill O’Reilly and Rachel Maddow are NOT reporters- they’re commentators. Rush Limbaugh and Jon Stewart are NOT journalists, they’re entertainers.
If you want a serious answer, I “trust” almost ALL news anchors and almost ALL mainstream print reporters, at least in the sense that I generally assume whatever story they report is accurate.
I have little respect for Katie Couric, but if she tells me on the CBS evening news that “Warren Buffett is putting together a campaign team and is going to run for President,” I’d believe her.
I don’t think much of CNN, but if their weekend anchor announces that “Defense Secretary Robert Gates will resign effectivel this Friday at noon,” I’ll believe it.
I believe that the New York Times has a liberal agenda and is FAR from unbiased… but if they publish a front page story saying that Newt Gingrich has a secret gay lover, I’ll believe it.
Even reporters I regard as horribly biased are generally ACCURATE, which is more important. Jayson Blairs and Janet Cookes are fairly rare. I may question reporters’ motives, but I’ll rarely question their truthfulness or accuracy.