To me, I think the veracity of individual stories aren't as important as the process of reporting and managing the life cycle of the story.
Are sources being double checked, did they attempt to contact the subject of the story for comments, do they have a process for reviewing bad stories and issuing retractions? That's really the difference between The NY Times and some random Macedonian blogger.
It's possible with all of that that the times can be wrong and somebody blogging from their moms basement can have the story right, but in the long run, you're better off getting your news from an organization that follows journalistic best practices.
Are sources being double checked, did they attempt to contact the subject of the story for comments, do they have a process for reviewing bad stories and issuing retractions? That's really the difference between The NY Times and some random Macedonian blogger.
It's possible with all of that that the times can be wrong and somebody blogging from their moms basement can have the story right, but in the long run, you're better off getting your news from an organization that follows journalistic best practices.