Do we need a disclaimer?
Perhaps one of the most telling things of last week's defrocking by USAToday of former reporter Jack Kelley was the two-desk, single-column hed on the lower right: Several major stories/appear to be accurate.

(I claim no original thought here. John McIntyre of ACES first pointed it out.)

What a sad commentary. Maybe we need that disclaimer "some stories may be true" on all our papers and broadcasts. That's overreacting, you say. I agree. But do you think maybe the public sees it that way?

(Here's a link to one of the stories in the paid archive for a start if you want to go back and review -- as a public service to journalism, USAToday should get this out of the paid archives and post it free on its site. Here's a free link to a Mediamix column on the subject, though it will expire in a few days.)