Is there video? That would be spectacular.

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Not only is it impossible in some cases to eliminate conflict of interest, I'm not sure we should even want such a thing.

Sure, there are many cases (most even) where I'd like the reporter to just cover the event, tell us what happened, and keep their opinions and speculation to themselves. It's fairly obvious when this is being done (and fairly rare these days).

But in the more common case where opinions are being expressed, even if subtly, there are a myriad of influences, most of which may be unknown to the reporter as well as the audience. I don't think most of us know where our gut-level opinions on many subjects originate. Best we can do when it comes to reporting is to just stick to the facts (and not just carefully selected facts) surrounding an issue and when an opinion *is* being expressed, to as best possible, disclose our influences.

Best way for readers to get at the truth is to not rely on just once source. For most people, if they tell me where they get their news I almost don't need to know much more about them to predict their opinions on a particular subject.

This is something that probably needs to be fixed by the publications themselves, not the individual journalists.

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