Raising Questions

My teenagers always accuse me of asking 20 questions about things they'd rather not share at all.

My reply always runs along the same line as Jack Sparrow gave in "Pirates of the Caribbean," when Will Turner indignantly said in the midst of a sword duel: "You cheated!"
Sparrow's reply: "Pirate."
My reply to my kids: "Journalist."

As a new Journalism 101 semester begins at Miami University, my students will be exploring what it means to be a journalist today -- and back to America's roots as a democracy.
Their first assignment: Check facts and look for bias while comparing the same news story across several different news sources.

The exercise cuts to the heart of the question: Whom do you trust for reliable news?



One of my answers to that question has always been The New York Times.
And this past week, soon-to-step-down NYT Editor Bill Keller prompted me even more to think about what we know about the expanding posse of presidential candidates, rivals for President Obama in a year, and what else we should know.

Here's the story, "Asking Candidates Tougher Questions About Faith."

See if you start re-thinking your views on presidential candidates, about faith and politics, about what facts we have now and which facts we need to make a decision.

And which news sources you are going to trust to give you that info... undiluted.