Should we trust Journalists?

Those who read newspapers (online or on paper) and particularly those who write from them should read “Flat Earth News” by Nick Davies. The news factory and “churnalism” is something we all face in an era where the deadline no longer exists.
The way the US government and CIA manipulate the media is not new (as I well know from my time in Nicaragua, Honduras and Panama in the mid-1980s) but across-the-board control of all messages certainly is. Beware of the over-friendly spokesperson (which is not the same as friends who happen to be spokespersons).
Just as insidious is the gradual takeover of “news” by private PR firms and in-house “communications” people, supplanting the real “source”. Journalists must protect their sources from in-house message-massagers. Evading the bastards is often a joint effort.
As for readers: when you read the newspaper can you really tell what is genuine news, what is planted or what is a completely made up event for the purpose of being in the newspapers?
I still go by the maxim: “news is what they don’t want you to know”. But updated for the internet age, it should perhaps be “news is what you can’t find out through google.”