Here is an introduction to Journalism 101 for dummies: News stories are nothing without sources because sources tell the story.

Without them, reporters would be little more than fiction writers.

Fledgling reporters are often dismayed to see stories trashed on the newsroom floor for a lack of sufficient sources. At least, this is how things used to be.

The New York Times, however, thought otherwise as they chased the Eliot Spitzer escort scandal.

Why go through the usual dead-end channels of calling the escort agency, contacting anonymous former clients or call girls, or doing a little digging to find sources when the escort, “Kristen,” has already done the work for you?

All the media needed to do was search for her on MySpace, because everyone knows you can believe everything people put on their profiles.

It was good enough for the New York Times, though, and the paper broke the news of the escort’s identity.

The New York Times has said on its front page for over a century that it contains “All the news that’s fit to print.” Apparently, MySpace profiles are fit to print.

“Kristen” became Ashley Alexandra Dupre, a young woman who the media has dubbed “an aspiring singer” who “came from a broken home” and now “loves her life,” just because she said so on her profile.

Subsequent articles have followed suit throughout mainstream media. Each one has been little more than a summary of the young woman’s MySpace page and publicity for the aspiring singer’s music hosted through her profile.

The story has proved legitimate thus far, due to the fact that no one has disputed the facts.

But when did MySpace become a credible source? When did it become acceptable to quote someone directly from an online networking site where people are often lying about their ages, interests or appearances?

Her interests probably did not include “getting paid for having sex with high profile politicians.”

Call me old-fashioned, but a reporter’s job is to get away from the desk and into the community to find the stories. Reporters have to do quite a bit of digging and confirming before breaking a story profiling the former New York governor’s whore.

In an age where self-published online content is abundant with the popularity of blogs and Web sites such as MySpace.com and Facebook.com, reporters might be tempted to use these sites as a springboard to find a foundation for their stories and real sources to talk to.

It is a slippery slope, however, and a path the media should not take. Once MySpace becomes an acceptable starting point in reporting (and it is getting close), there will be little differentiation between a news story summarizing the profile and the profile itself.

As an aspiring reporter, it is devastating to see the New York Times make a mockery of the realm of investigative journalism.

Adolph Ochs envisioned a newspaper that would be the paper of record when he established the New York Times. Now, the paper of record has reduced itself to reprinting MySpace profiles and passing it off as investigative reporting.

Just as most professors do not allow students to cite Wikipedia as a source in academic papers, the public should not allow the media to exploit MySpace as the extent of its investigative reporting.