| Chapter 6
Journalism
Ethics
By
David Krajicek
Issues of Ethics
Under siege a few years ago after cops fired dozens of shots that
killed an unarmed man, the New York Police Department gave its 40,000
officers a packet of behavioral cue cards.
The last message was a variation on the Golden Rule: "Remember
to treat people in the same way you would expect to be treated."
Rank-and-file cops rolled their eyes at the corny concept. So might
many journalists. But it applies to our work, as well.
Unfortunately, an ersatz counter-platitude has leached into the
profession. As expressed by CBS's Leslie Stahl, it goes like this:
"We are going to be despised for one reason or another no matter
what we do. There's the goal; that's our job."
This is an odd take on the notion that journalists should seek
respect, not admiration. But perspective is everything.
Fairness and Objectivity
These are among the knotty concepts of our business, along with
independence and impartiality.
"Fair and objective" to one ideology might seem biased
and slanted to another. The Fox News Channel and National Public
Radio news both might claim objectivity, but their perspectives
span a wide ideological chasm.
Accuracy in Media, with a conservative point of view, says, "We
encourage members of the media to report the news fairly and objectively
– without resorting to bias or partisanship."
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, a liberal group, says, "Independent,
aggressive and critical media are essential to an informed democracy.
But mainstream media are increasingly cozy with the economic and
political powers they should be watchdogging. Mergers in the news
industry have accelerated, further limiting the spectrum of viewpoints
that have access to mass media. With U.S. media outlets overwhelmingly
owned by for-profit conglomerates and supported by corporate advertisers,
independent journalism is compromised. Ultimately, FAIR believes
that structural reform is needed to break up the dominant media
conglomerates, establish independent public broadcasting, and promote
strong, non-profit alternative sources of information."
These groups fault media ethics on the issue of bias, but ideological
leaning is in the eye of the beholder.
Many journalists today have jettisoned the old and perhaps unattainable
goal of objectivity in favor of fairness. Every journalist and news
organization likely brings a catalogue of biases – judgments,
values, morals, ideology, ethics and perhaps even animosity or affection
– to every story or assignment.
Fairness is "the ethic of restraining your own biases,"
in the phrase of Jay Rosen, a New York University journalism professor.
As the adage goes, the media may not influence what the public
thinks, but it almost certainly influences what they about.
We are the nexus at which public conversations about important issues
take place. "Fairness" can be as simple as welcoming all
points of view into those discussions – including advocates
with "subjective" agendas. Often, those advocates are
better-informed about the topic than the general public. It is a
mistake to dismiss them as mere partisans.
As Rosen told the New York Times, "Everybody who comes
at the press with a dissatisfaction, with a complaint, or even with
an idea, is seen by journalists as subjective. And those who are
‘subjective,' who are interested, who have a stake, are almost
by definition unqualified to pass judgment on the ‘objective'
operation of the press…That view of ‘everybody else
but us is highly partisan' is itself an artifact of the ideology
or doctrine of objectivity…That is a fantasy that journalists
have about themselves."
Sensationalism and Integrity
Fretting over sensationalism is nothing new.
In the 1600s certain English periodicals carried red-hot accounts
of scandals. Tsk-tsking followed.
In 1648 the periodical Mercurius Anti-Mercurius chastised "Newsmongers…ready
to gather up the Excrements of the Kingdom.'' In 1719 the London
Daily Post censured its raw competitors: "Misrepresentation
is, as it were, the Business of every Writer, and whether they speak
of private Persons or of publick, the character of no Man seems
safe, but Scandal and Slander make havoc of Men's Reputation without
Mercy."
In 1828 the New York Statesman had its say:
"We deem it of little benefit to the cause of morals thus
to familiarize the community, and especially the younger parts of
it, to the details of misdemeanors and crime. It is a contemplation
that, without any possible good, at once exposes the heart to taint
and the mind to perversion."
Today, legitimate news operations sometimes are reluctant to take
the lead in reporting sleazy stories. But they have no compunction
about "piling on," as broadcast journalism Jerry Nachman
puts it, after tabloids serve as the crash-test dummies. I call
it peeping Tom journalism; we peer through the windows of a questionable
source – a supermarket tabloid – and tell readers/viewers
what we see.
Dan Goodgame, a White House correspondent for Time magazine,
explained: "You let the tabloids go out and pay people for
stories and do the dirty things establishment journalists hold themselves
above. Then you pick up and cover the controversy, either directly
or as a press story. You write: 'Oh, how horrible the press is.'
Then you go into the details.''
Often, critics ascribe financial motives to sensationalism –
an attempt to "sell newspapers." Fairness and Accuracy
in Reporting asserts, "Profit-driven news organizations are
under great pressure to boost ratings by sensationalizing the news:
focusing attention on lurid, highly emotional stories, often featuring
a bizarre cast of characters and a gripping plot but devoid of significance
to most people's lives."
High-interest news stories have proven to boost the ratings of
cable news networks. But in print quality, not sleaze, sells. The
largest-circulation newspapers in America are regarded as the best,
and many of those also are the most profitable.
A few suggestions:
- Use good taste and good sense.
- Don't use material from secondary media sources if you cannot
vouch for the veracity of the information-gathering process (including
payment to sources).
- Consider carefully the news value of celebrity stories.
- Don't overkill. The volume of reporting on certain celebrity
crime stories has grown irrational. The shoplifting trial of actress
Winona Ryder is one of many examples.
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