Confirmatory News

Abstract

This paper analyzes the effect of competitive pressures on the quality of reporting by the media with reputational concerns. Competition helps to elicit information from the media when news covers issues on which the priors are su¢ ciently precise, or else issues on which the true state of things is likely to be eventually revealed. However, it induces conrmatory reporting when news concerns controversial issues and it is hardly possible to ever asses its quality.