It's tales like this one, from Mark Cuban, that breed distrust of the media. I don't trust the reporting from overseas any more than I trust the local stuff - if they can't accurately report an email thread, what can they accurately report?

It's not as if Cuban is the only one noticing this - Dave Winer has opined on this, and instances of fauxtography have been widespread in war reporting over the last few years. It's not new, either - remember the exploding gas tank incident staged by NBC for Dateline?

The trouble is, reporters play at being objective observers, but they aren't. They are as susceptible to bias as the rest of us, and are just as willing to cling to a worldview (even if the facts don't fit) as anyone else. Look at that BusinessWeek story (first link) Cuban got savaged by - in the reporter's mind, Cuban is a loose cannon, willing to say just about anything. Never mind what he actually said; the story just writes itself.

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