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Comment by twothamendment | Hacker News Reader

"It's amazing to me there isn't a system that we can automatically pull from, of trusted channels..."

I like it, but who gets to decide which sources are trusted?

The people visiting the service decide that for themselves; they decide if they think the provider is trustworthy. You personally have to trust the person / people deciding which sources on a matter/story are trustworthy. It's a chain. That trust gets built up over a long period of time ideally, starting typically from a very modest beginning. It's worth noting that sources are often not consistent, they can be trusted on one thing and then get another thing wrong, so it certainly won't be a simple matter of dictating that This Source is good and That Source is bad (for everything).

More challenging than earning that initial trust, is maintaining it, not allowing a perversion to occur over time (where the service becomes biased, irrational). For every service that gains initial trust, most inevitably lose it over time; keeping it long-term is far harder.

It's a chain, it's a hierarchy, it's leadership, governance and accountability systems - protocols and processes - and transparency towards results/outcome. It's why "historically" good brands can get taken over by relative bad actors, perhaps "just" greed, and pillage the good reputation and reach a brand has - and because they already have the resources, processes, and reach - they can maintain it more easily; it's far harder to break through the noise to create a new brand with mass mindshare than to acquire, and why acquisitions happen and conglomerates form - as a form of suppression and to continue maintaining control.

Whatever network(s) or leadership within the system you subscribe to.

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