What is a journalist?

In Chapter 3 of Here Comes Everbody Clay Shirky talks a lot about what makes a journalist (2008).

I find myself drawn to three main points:
1. The validity of the facts presented
2. Journalistic code of ethics.

1. My boyfriend was a creative writing major and we have lots of discussion about what makes a book/newpaper legitimate and trustworthy. A newspaper or published nonfiction book has  fact checking before publication. More modern outlets such as blogs have fact checking after the publication. While in house fact checkers are supposed to be unbiased I could see how a publisher of Rush Limbaugh's latest work could have a different slant in reviewing the facts than one checking on Hillary Clinton's. In a way facts are sadly subjective, but I imagine there must be real standards of practice in the traditional publication world that are well evolved and trustworthy.

In contrast the web has things like factcheck.org The downfall of the post publishing fax check is that not every crazy post out there would be vetted, and even a later discounted "fact" like the disbelief in climate change science, can gain a strong foothold despite expert opinion.

Maybe we need some fact checking overseers, that are nonpartisan and dependable to add a seal of approval to postings and amateur journalism so we can have a marker for what to trust?

2. The following page has links to international journalism ethics codes.
http://www.journalism.org/resources/ethics_codes 

Being a journalist, like being a doctor or an educator should have a standard code of practice. This needs to include many different factors such as the role of opinion, is the journalism sponsored by a certain group with a vested interest, the influence of religious beliefs, political freedoms, personal privacy issues, are the facts correct etc. I am quite sure that lots of the amateurs ( and some of the professionals) are not operating according to a real code of ethics.

I also wonder after I read more and more blogs if we as a society can even differentiate opinion from fact. We are taught to have an opinion from such a young and uninformed age that I see it running rampant in the fabric of our journalism and national discussion. This opinion explosion seems to be very fueled by these new forms of amateur journalists.

 I heard that Jim Lehrer from PBS evening news hour does not even vote because he does not want to have a bias.