In Which I (sorta) Apologize to NPR...(as if I were wrong or something)

Now of course I wasn't actually wrong. But I do think that since I criticized NPR (albeit somewhat ironically) I should take a moment and say something nice about NPR. Because frankly, they are one of the best news organizations on the planet, and they do it all all on a shoestring budget--Katie Couric's 2010 salary was more than the budgets of "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered" combined (sadly this is not an exaggeration). And one of the reasons the that I wasn't offended by Allison Aubrey's article, was she was obviously trying to give enough context about the issue at hand, (i.e. are wine professionals genetically different from everyone else in a way that makes expensive wine not worth it for everyone else?) to make it more than a he-said-she-said exercise in frustration. Which naturally reminded me of a blog post by the indispensable Jay Rosen where he congragulates NPR on their new handbook on journalistic standards. He says NPR...

...commits itself to avoiding the worst excesses of “he said, she said” journalism. It says to itself that a report characterized by false balance is a false report. It introduces a new and potentially powerful concept of fairness: being “fair to the truth.” My verdict: Bravo, NPR.

Now granted, an article about wine that is only a few paragraphs long is not exactly the most difficult test for the new policy. But I think it is actually a decent illustration of how good journalism works. The commentators on the other hand are really trying my patience, anyone who brings up "Two Buck Chuck" should be made to taste Alto Moncayo Granacha 2003 and condemned to a desert island for the rest of their lives with nothing but "Two Buck Chuck" to drink.*

*I'm sure this is probably a violation of human rights of some sort...but still if you mess with the bull you get the horns.