As a grade-schooler I was always taught to find 2 sources that could not be an encyclopedia, and this was before Wikipedia.
I understand the need to get information out when it's breaking news, but it seems editors are getting the same itchy trigger fingers we have associated with the bloggers & tweeters. They should be embarrassed at best, and probably reprimanded.
Quite, and the same used to be an iron rule of journalism. The whole benefit of (any-)pedia is to guide you to those sources by presenting them in a meaningful context.
I get just as irritated by people who reflexively say 'you cited wikipedia LOL fail' which is usually an excuse to avoid reading something that contradicts or undermines their argument. Entertainingly, if you give the same person links to the sources cited in a given article, they'll just as often complain about 'ivory tower elitism'. teh stupid, it burns :-(
I understand the need to get information out when it's breaking news, but it seems editors are getting the same itchy trigger fingers we have associated with the bloggers & tweeters. They should be embarrassed at best, and probably reprimanded.