Bloggere sto for uansvarlig journalistikk under «Katrina»s ødeleggelser i New Orleans. De rapporterte tilfeller av voldtekt som aldri ble bekreftet. Det sa leder av News International (Murdoch) i London, Les Hinton, under en redaktørkonferanse i helgen.

«In New Orleans a lot of bad information came from bloggers and amateur witnesses, all newly empowered with instant communication,» he said. «We must be experts at getting it right and being reliable.»

Mr Hinton, who serves as Rupert Murdoch’s chief lieutenant in London overseeing the Times, Sunday Times, Sun and News of the World, was speaking last night at the opening of the Society of Editors conference in Windermere.

He said it was important for journalists to avoid cynicism and to reflect on the extent to which they themselves had been responsible for a breakdown in trust between readers and newspapers.

«We have always seen ourselves as sceptics, which is a good thing, but are too many of us becoming cynics? Cyncism is infectious, but are we catching it from our readers or are they catching it from us?»

Hinton blasts ‘citizen journalists’