OK, there isn't really a Powell Doctrine of Sports Journalism. But former Secretary of State Colin Powell does have some strong feelings about how information should be used, and they might as well apply to sports journalism.

Tim Weiner wrote an article about U.S. intelligence that was published in The New York Times on Sunday, and it includes this:

The principles of how to arrive at good intelligence estimates are not new. Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, said last month that he learned them 17 years ago, while serving under Colin Powell, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

" 'Look, I have got a rule,' " he said General Powell told him. " 'As an intelligence officer, your responsibility is to tell me what you know. Tell me what you don't know. Then you're allowed to tell me what you think. But you always keep those three separated.' "

Three categories: what you know, what you don't know, and what you think.

I didn't mean to spend yesterday assigning those categories to practically everything I read. But it happened. Some part of my brain just latched on to that idea, and off we went.

Turns out it's powerful advice. Sort your information into those categories, and you'll be smarter.  

There is much bellyaching these days about the direction of media: cable, the internet, celebrities, oh my! People from one medium are eager to point the finger at practitioners of the others.

My thought (see, there's a category for you) is that no matter what the media, if you consume it responsibly, you can be responsibly informed through this period of media upheaval.

It's probably too much to ask reporters and bloggers to label their information in Powell's categories. But we can do it as readers. 

And if you're like me, you'll find yourself attracted to people who are heavy on the knowing. You'll also be surprised of how much of what you read belongs in that "what you think" file. 

The rarest bird of all is someone in modern media willing to make the all-important confession of not knowing important things. Hearing an informed reporter listing the things they have not been able to find out makes readers a lot savvier. It's valuable. But it's incredibly rare.

I have no idea what that's about.  

(Photo: Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images for Meet the Press)