Watching the watchdogs

The Deseret Morning News comments today on the CBS News/Dan Rather flap that led to the firings or resignations of a news producer and several news executives. The News position piece includes this statement:

As more and more news outlets scamper to break big stories, the cut-throat atmosphere leads to shortcuts. And with thousands of Internet "blogs" weighing in with opinions, traditional news outlets in both the print and broadcast worlds are forced to make spur-of-the-moment decisions about stories. Indeed, some analysts say the time will come when newspapers will simply gather reports from other many sources, do the fact checking and pass the reliable pieces on to the public — much like a digest.