USA Today editor: News media must regain public trust

By The Associated Press

The editor of USA Today says the news media need to do better in gaining the public trust. 

"I remember when members of the press were (perceived as) good guys," Ken Paulson said Sept. 22 at Vanderbilt University in his first public address since becoming editor earlier this year. 

"American news media face unprecedented credibility challenges," he said. "We need to do a better job of building trust with readers." 

Paulson said the media have reached a critical moment because so many reporters and editors are content to generate "heat instead of light." 

He also said the entire industry would suffer because of the questionable story on President Bush's National Guard duty aired on "60 Minutes." CBS News has said it could not authenticate documents it used in a Sept. 8 story that questioned Bush's service. 

"When `60 Minutes" credibility is damaged, the rest of the news media's credibility is damaged," Paulson said. 

Since being at USA Today, Paulson has enforced new policies about anonymous sources and added an editor's position to handle reader concerns. 

"It was the use and abuse of confidential sources, more precisely nonexistent sources, that led to the embarrassment at USA Today earlier this year," he said. "We've taken several steps to try to ensure that nothing like that happens again." 

USA Today reporter Jack Kelley was found to have fabricated parts of at least 20 stories and stolen at least 100 passages from other news organizations. 

USA Today's new policy says that anonymous sources may not be used in stories unless the source's identity is known to the managing editor. The managing editor then has to decide if the information outweighs potential damage to the paper's credibility.