Sources, Stories and Motives: When will websites learn?

I am constantly amazed that in an era when we are supposedly more aware and more discerning about many things, including where we get our news, that a website would take an obviously suspect report and back it up.

News On News basically highlighted Claire Atkinson's reporting at the New York Post on the exodus of talent at CNBC.

Now if that sentence isn't already setting off alarm bells, then it should be.

It's not that the story hasn't got a lot of facts in it. It does. Guy Johnson and Trish Regan have joined Bloomberg, Erin Burnett joined CNN, and Melissa Francis joined Fox Business.

What has got me going is the speculation about CNBC's David Faber being the next one to depart, which is based on absolutely nothing.

If you think about it for a moment, the motive for the story is clear. The New York Post is owned by NewsCorp, the troubled company at the centre of the News Of The World phone hacking scandal.

NewsCorp also owns the Fox Business Channel, who is a direct competitor of... CNBC.

This is the same basic trick that NewsCorp worked so well while they establishing Fox News Channel. Talk down your opposition and slowly build yourselves up.

People are wiser to this trick now. But why News On News didn't spot that obvious conflict of interest, I'm not sure.