Why most journalism is poor evidence

In most cases, I don't accept newspapers as sources in my students' analytic work. This article from Slate, on the Washington Post's coverage of the local drug problem, reveals why. I would accept journalism as an example of how journalism tends to dramatize problems with little or no context, but, as this Slate article suggests, most daily journalism is not a reliable source of actual facts or data. It is said that "journalism is the rough draft of history," but in this Washington Post case, it's very rough indeed. Of course, I would accept this Post article as an example of the problems of daily journalism.