Press seeks 'new rules' in the age of Trump

The news media are re-considering the rules of journalism under the Trump administration, after a weekend of "alternative facts" and a debate over crowd size at President Trump's inauguration.

Many journalists covering the new administration have made it clear that they think the new administration will require heightened scrutiny. But now, some are going further, and saying that traditional media practices need a page-one rewrite.

"[W]e need to develop new rules that adhere to the core values of honesty and respect for our audience," wrote Buzzfeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith in the New York Times on Monday. "That means debunking falsehoods, and being transparent with readers about our process of reporting. Sometimes, it means publishing unverified information in a transparent way that informs our users of its provenance, its impact and why we trust or distrust it."

The "unverified information" was a reference to the still-unsubstantiated report that Buzzfeed published this month containing lewd details and allegations about Trump's personal life.

Smith's call for "new rules" was an echo of something Times media columnist Jim Rutenberg said two weeks ago, after Trump hosted a press conference and hit CNN for publishing its own story that referenced the salacious report (though CNN did not provide the raw details, as Buzzfeed did).