Are Unreliable sources underrated?

As journalists must reject as false the idea that some sources are going to be reliable all the time and some other sources are going to be unreliable all the time. Both premises are full of exceptions.

For example the site CBN News is clearly an Evangelical Christian themed news source. Which we could in one sense be considered unreliable for many, many news stories. However, if one where writing a story about say Evangelical Christian Reactions to say a government policy. I could see quoting a site the like CBN (which clearly considers itself a serious news source) in an article.

Conversely, a site like Al-Arabiyya is typically considered a reliable source. This network has done a lot of quality journalism in the past. Al-Arabiyya has had journalists die in the field in its commitment to quality journalism and it was the first news site to interview President Obama after he took office. Because of its commitment to journalism Al-Arabiyya has often times come into conflict with host governments which may make sources reluctant to deal with the network in the future and taint its coverage.

Additionally, as journalists I believe sometimes unreliable sources can even be useful. When I worked in Egypt I often started my day by browsing the local press. Often times I'd read some thing that seemed unreliable and commit myself to researching and seeing if this was true. I'm going to post a link on my blog to a story I did on Egyptian potatoes following claims in the Arabic Language press that the E.U had banned the importation of Egyptian potatoes. My article got quotes from official sources that claimed otherwise.

So I think those of of us in the free press have a responsibility to use reliable sources and also to keep an eye on the unreliable sources.

As for two blogs I think are reliable.

1) The official U.S State Department blog(DipNote) is  reliable place for policy wonks to go for information. It's very dry though perhaps because of this.


2) For a blog on foreign policy that is both reliable and is also much more readable is  "FP Passport" the official blog of Foreign Policy magazine. They do make mistakes occasionally and when they do they correct themselves in a public way which is very important for bloggers.