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About 2,500 years ago, Thucydides set out to record what had happened in the Peloponnesian War, in the process laying down principles that could just as well guide a correspondent today in Iraq, or anywhere else, for that matter.

“I have made it a principle not to write down the first story that came my way, and not even to be guided by my own general impressions,” he wrote.

Nor would a single source be sufficient, he noted, because “different eyewitnesses gave different accounts of the same events, speaking out of partiality for one side or the other, or else from imperfect memories.”

And thus we see the origins of what we today call the journalism of verification, which has the ambitious goal of giving people a true account of the world beyond their own experience. This newspaper is dedicated to that craft.

The world is changing, though, and we see evidence of that in the rise of what some call the journalism of assertion. The kind of storytelling that Thucydides pioneered is being crowded out by the stuff of personal blogs and talk shows on radio and cable TV, where opinion is often passed off as fact and accounts that differ from one’s own expectations are trashed.

Mind you, there’s nothing inherently wrong with blogs. I read a bunch every day. And I get a kick out of some of those mock newscasts on cable television. But in the limited time most of us have for information consumption, a choice to be entertained by voices that echo what’s already in our heads usually means giving up options that offer a view beyond our own intellectual backyards.

Last week, I attended a meeting of the American Council on Education, whose chairman, John Sexton, the president of New York University, has observed, “It is alarming that, in our age of information, the number of utterly uninformed voters is astonishingly high.”

Although he doesn’t use the term, Sexton lays part of the blame on Americans’ declining appetite for the journalism of verification.

“A common canon of information has been supplanted by an echo chamber in which people pick a particular news source to fit their views,” he writes, “and their views then are validated and reinforced by the new information they receive, information tailored and targeted for them — and untested for its accuracy against any meaningful standard.”

But how can you find a latter-day Thucydides, who will give you a fair account of matters beyond your own view?

One answer to that may come from a thoughtful new book, “The Economics of Integrity,” by Anna Bernasek, a writer on economic issues.

Bernasek believes that one quality underlying successful businesses is the bond of trust they have built with consumers, which they invite by displaying integrity. What she calls “the DNA of integrity … the genetic code for a system of trust,” involves three elements: disclosure, norms and accountability.

Businesses should reveal their activity, she says, including their financial holdings. Clear and fair rules of the road need to be in place for business, just as they are for traffic. And those who violate the rules need to be held to account.

But to go further: Bernasek’s outline can apply to an information supplier, too.

First, disclosure: A news organization ought to be willing in most cases to disclose how information was gathered and who its sources are (recognizing that occasionally watchdog journalism relies upon confidential sources, just as good law enforcement does).

Second, norms: Good journalists follow rules of conduct, guided by a code of ethics. Ours is painted on the walls of our conference room, beginning with the words, “Seek the truth and report it fully.”

Third, accountability: Journalism that misses the mark must not be the last word. There are letters to the editor and corrections, follow-up stories and journalism reviews. (And, incidentally, this is why I answer mail and phone calls.)

Journalism of verification displays that DNA of integrity. If we rely on news sources that don’t, we have no reason to expect the wisdom of the Greeks; nor, sadly, may our culture avoid what they would have seen as the wrath of the gods.

 

Rex Smith is editor of the Albany Times Union.