Freedom of the Press

The recent drama in 0.0 has given rise to much in-game conflict.  Seemingly more ferocious, however, is the fight regarding the reporting of the conflict.

For new, hi-sec players like myself, null-sec politics is a rather mysterious affair.  All of the regions meld together, the different alliances (for the most part) don't seem that different, and the systems all have indistinguishable names.  There are only a few ways to find out what goes down in 0.0:

• Have a friend who lives there and can give you the inside scoop.  This method can be biased and is hobbled by Operation Security.
• Read the blog of a pilot who flies out there.  Again, maybe biased and censored.
• Read the CAOD forum.  Oftentimes makes no sense; full of trolls.
• Read an EVE News website that summarizes and simplifies the complex events of null-sec.

To me, the second and fourth options seem the best.  Being a blogger myself, I'm inclined to favor blogs for my news.  Nevertheless, I often find insular reports of what goes on; it is extremely difficult to tie together the different accounts of different bloggers, living on different fronts, fighting for different sides.  Thus, it seems like a comprehensive news source is the best way for scaredy-cats like me to get the down-low on 0.0.

There are three main sites that I know of: evenews.co.uk, Eve News 24, and Eve Tribune.  Each of these sites has their strengths and weaknesses.

Eve News UK: Does little independent reporting.  The majority of their stuff is just linked from CCP's own site.  Moreover, the Eve news is distorted by the "Tech News" section, which is cool but doesn't make me think of an ultimate Eve news source.

Eve Tribune: My favorite site.  The Tribune provides well-written, in-depth reporting.  The only problem is that news is slowwww...  They've made strides towards instant gratification with a new RSS feed, but they still aren't a nimble news source.

Eve News 24: Most up-to-date news.  This news, however, is usually very biased and shoddily written.  This site could be the ultimate in Eve reporting, if only they learned about fairness and the duty of a journalist to record all sides of a story.

Okay, so we've profiled these sites, now why are there issues?  Mainly, the problems arise from Eve News 24.  My complaint is that the journalism is shoddy and sensational.  Articles routinely contain both factual and (irritatingly) spelling errors.  For example, read this interview that they conducted.  The writer obviously had no editor, asked stupid questions, and did not present a flowing and informative interview.  That doesn't have the community up in arms, however.  What angers people is their undeniably pro-Pandemic Legion spin.  One angry commenter went so far to refer to them as the "FOX news of Eve."  Ouch.

This raises questions about the site's mission, as well as that of all Eve critics and bloggers.  In a perfect world, we would all bring unbiased, complete, and objective news to our readers.  Sadly, everything we write is colored by our views and our experiences.  Manasi sums it up quite well:

One slight note with EN24, your only ever getting someone else’s view of the conflict, the true version is somewhere between two completely opposing sides.

True, but since that objective medium is impossible to find, should we just say nothing?  I don't think so.  I think we should report our side of the story, getting whatever we find out to the community.  It is their call to make judgments on the truthfulness and usefulness of information.  Eve News 24 provides a service to the community by giving us an inkling of what goes on in 0.0 space.  Is it totally correct?  Does Pandemic Legion always inflict massive losses on the enemy and only retreat when server lag dictates?  Of course not, but because of EN24, I know that PL is fighting out there, I know that Goonswarm is seeking revenge on IT, and I know that there is something going on in 6VDT-H.  While I regret the spinning of the story, I'm just happy that there is a story.

I encourage you all to chill out about journalistic bias: you've been there yourself.  The best way to reform our news sources is by providing them with good news.  If PL wasn't the only alliance sending regular reports to EN24, then the site would offer a much more complete and uncolored picture.  So everyone go do a service to the Eve community and get your news out there, drivel or not.

Thoughts?

-Stevie