The media pundit's pundit. Written by NYC insider Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine covers news, media, journalism, and politics.
Breaking the codes
: In his very good coverage of l’affaire Spokane at PressThink, Len Witt points to a plethora of codes of journalistic ethics.
Methinks the volume of codes of ethics is, itself, a symptom of a problem. Doth we protest too much? Are we overcomplicating it? Are we overcompensating?
Doesn’t it pretty much add up to this: Don’t lie. Don’t sell out.
Are we shooting the messenger here?
“Doesn’t it pretty much add up to this: Don’t lie. Don’t sell out.”
Pretty much.
>Don’t sell out.
>I said to Michael Powell at lunch (more on that later
Looks like someone already has.
Don’t lie. Don’t sell out. Check your facts.
Michael: Yes, but the last is more a matter of preofssionalism and doing your job rather than ethics, eh? But then, I guess so is the first. Maybe the ethical issue is only: don’t sell out. The rest is just doing your job….
Agreed. Or if one wanted to carve it into a clean (albeit fustian) rubric:
Be True.
Covers both the honesty and the integrity aspects. Sounds a little too much like something a Richard Bach character might have spouted though…
A local newspaper (or any for that matter) does not have to answer to your, my, an academic’s, out of touch old school editor’s, or any organization’s code of ethics other than the ones they’ve determined and created for themselves that are in the best interests of serving the welfare of their readership. These are decisions for each newspaper to make and they wouldn’t be around for very long if their code of ethics was that far out-of-whack with their constituents or illegal, obviously.
Of course, you don’t have to dig deep into these institutional prescribed codes, like ASNE’s, to find total justication for what the Spokane paper did: “The American press was made free not just to inform or just to serve as a forum for debate but also to bring an independent scrutiny to bear on the forces of power in the society, including the conduct of official power at all levels of government.” Sounds about right to me.
Ultimately, a newspaper need only answer to its readers and in this case there is overwhelming support for the paper from Spokane citizens. That’s not “bad journalism” that’s just good public service journalism. They’re damn lucky none of those big city editors or academics who are so short-sighted and arrogant to call this “bad for journalism” are not the editor of their newspaper.
I think Jay Rosen said it best: “The case does not lend itself to “rules.” What it requires instead is judgment, and that holds for we critics and observers, too.”
Selling-out is betraying your values and going against what you know is right. Kudos to Steve Smith for not doing that while serving in the best interests of Spokane citizens.
What is “selling out” really? Selling out to one person is not to another. The “don’t cheat, don’t lie” is unequivocal.
If you want to see controversy, look at this post:
whowilldietoday.blogspot.com
If you want to see controversy, look at this post:
who will die today
That was interesting RK.
There are no fixed stars in the made up Church of “Mankind” so many serve – so one can’t be sure of anything.
“Be True.”
Hmm.
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