WASHINGTON -- It has been a tough time for journalists -- a period when those who consider themselves serious and honest practitioners of the craft begin to wonder whether they shouldn't be ashamed of what they do. To borrow an old line: "Don't tell my mother that I'm a reporter. She thinks I'm a towel man in a bawdy house. What has one thinking that way of late is the onslaught of unsubstantiated rumors and innuendos and outright falsities surrounding the presidential election, some of it brought on by the candidates themselves, and passed off as legitimate news. From a notorious "gotcha" biographer's unsupported allegations of drug abuse by George W. Bush to utterly discredited charges that John Kerry lied about his Vietnam War record, there seems to be no end to the assault on journ...
THE photograph of the weekend was of Andrea Mitchell of NBC News jumping the line of autograph seekers in an attempt to do an ambush interview of Sarah Palin. Palin already had granted hours of interviews to Oprah Winfrey, Barbara Walters of ABC News and everyone at Fox News.
FREEDOM OF MISBEHAVIOR: You may or may not have found the outcomes of this week's village dissolution votes in Williamsville and Sloan disturbing, but you should be bothered by this: Community activist Kevin Gaughan, who has been championing government downsizing of all sorts, was shoved and had something thrown at him by anti-dissolution villagers on the day of the votes. Gaughan laughed it off as understandable "high spirits," which is to his credit. But it's not just that; it's an example of coarseness and incivility of the type that has again become all too common in arguments over issues.
THE latest setback for media credibility came this week with Newsweek's retraction of a story that caused rioting in Afghanistan and Pakistan, leaving 16 people dead. That's not the story, however, that has journalists around the country arguing professional ethics. It's the work done by The Spokesman-Review, a newspaper in Spokane, Wash., that revealed earlier this month that the city's mayor had a double life. Spokane voters knew Jim West as a conservative mayor big on economic development.
Legitimate news organizations do not pay for interviews. That's one of the cardinal rules of journalism, something every journalism school drums into the brains of its graduates. If I paid someone to talk to me for a story, I'd get fired. Immediately. Even if I just handed them five bucks. And I'm the TV critic, not Woodward or Bernstein.
Survey data on journalism students' perceptions of plagiarism and fabrication indicate an ethics gap in which students interested in journalistic areas (newspaper, magazine, broadcast, photojournalism, and online) are more concerned about journalistic ethics than students interested in nonjournalistic areas (public relations, advertising, graphic design, others). Students interested in journalistic areas also suggested harsher penalties for plagiarism and fabrication. Further analyses, however, found that the ethics gain among nonjournalistic students increased to a nearly equivalent amount as journalistic students over the course of their respective university educations and training experiences, including student media work and internships. While ethics gaps do exist between journalis...
KEITHAPALOOZA It was all about journalistic ethics. Sure. Uh-huh. Some say MSNBC's rapid-fire firing and rehiring of pundit Keith Olbermann was simply a ratings-minded publicity stunt with melodrama right out of "All My Children." There was rebellion, confrontation, bloodletting, punishment, sorrow, drama, chastening, reconciliation, joy, costume changes. Thousands of liberal fans signed the perfunctory instant petition from the Progressive Change Campaign Committee demanding Mr. Olbermann's reinstatement after he was banished "indefinitely" on Friday for contributing campaign funds to three Democrats. The squabble was ramped up on the Internet, social media and the network itself. Media critics pointed out what it all meant. Stories multiplied, buzz ensued.
Reader and Riffe determine whether newspaper readers in general share the attitudes of some of their letter-writing peers who base assessments of journalistic ethics on their own personal biases, as suggested by the hostile media hypothesis. Their survey indicates that most people agree with journalists that publishing controversial opinions in letters to the editor is ethically justified.
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