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Taking the pledge?

33 comments on Taking the pledge?

Taking the pledge

: Dan Gillmor asks contributors to his Bayosphere to take a pledge. I respect Dan more than anyone I know in journalism. I know what he’s aiming for, to establish a paragon of citizen journalism, and I respect that as well.

But I don’t know about taking his pledge.

Anybody can nitpick any such pledge or code of ethics. In fact, that’s what I say the public should do in this case. Dan suggests discussing the pledge in a forum. Better yet, Dan, why not put your pledge up as a wiki and see what the people think it should be? Let your public create it. The days of the guys with the power and the presses and the initials — ASNE, APME, NAA, etc. — setting the standards are over. Now the public sets the standards, right? Well, they always did set the standards but we didn’t listen.

Among my nitpiks with this pledge:

He requires us to promise to “work in the community interest.” What community? What interest? Who’s to say what the community interest is? I can only guarantee that I will post in my interest; whether I post in the community’s interest, the community will have to decide.

He requires that I be “fair: I’m always listening to and taking account of other viewpoints.” No, there are some viewpoints I will not take into account and not listen to. I won’t listen to trolls I’ve put on my ignore list. I won’t listen to terrorist sympathizers. I know that’s not what Dan and company are asking with this, but others would. This is the issue with such a pledge: It’s open to such varying interpretation: Someone will say gotcha, you didn’t listen to people who hate America. And I will say: Damned straight, I won’t.

Most of the pledge is very mom-and-Apple pie: I will be open and transparent and correct errors and such. I can’t argue with most of this.

But I would sum the pledge in two words:

Be honest.

Doesn’t that pretty much cover it?

Still, I’m not sure I want to go signing any pledges. Signing a pledge doesn’t make me more trustworthy or more accurate or more decent or more ethical. Either you trust me or you don’t. That’s up to you and it’s based either on my abilities or your fairness. Pledges are not the measure of honesty. Codes are not the measure of ethics. Actions are.

I’m just not a pledge kind of guy. I’m not a joiner. Guess that’s why I am a blogger.

33 responses to “Taking the pledge?”

  1. david Avatar
    david

    >But I would sum the pledge in two words:
    >Be honest.
    >Doesn’t that pretty much cover it?
    How do we know when someone is not being honest? Maybe it’s just BAD PR!

  2. Ben Sparks Avatar
    Ben Sparks

    >>> I’m just not a pledge kind of guy.
    >>> I’m not a joiner. Guess that’s why
    >>> I am a blogger.
    what’s this then…
    https://buzzmachine.com/archives/2004_11_01.html#008331
    ???

  3. Horatio Avatar
    Horatio

    In my book, there’s only one thing that pledges measure: how full of shit the guy is who’s asking you to sign it.

  4. Lynn Avatar
    Lynn

    How do we know when someone is not being honest?
    At first, you cannot know this about anyone.
    Are there not those in your personal life, whose words you’ve always found to be true to the best of their knowledge and thus they’ve earned your trust?
    And then there are those you’ve discovered speak words that might – or might not – be the truth as they know it.
    Time revealed the difference.

  5. Fausta Avatar
    Fausta

    Three empty terms:
    “the community interest”
    “the common good”
    “international law”

  6. Itinerant Librarian Avatar
    Itinerant Librarian

    An interesting idea. I admit that initially I was all for it. I like the idea of being fair and honest and transparent. But a little reflection, and reading your original post, did make me think a little. At the end of the day, bloggers of all stripes do post for their own interest. It would be nice if, whatever their politics or affiliations, they were honest and open about their biases and points of view. I especially agree with the right of not having to listen to everyone. People often cite the “everyone has a right to an opinion” or the idea of free speech, but they often forget what goes with it: you may have the right to speak your mind, and I have the right to ignore it. At the end of the day, it is the readers who decide. Actions speak louder than just taking a pledge of principles which seem, at least in part, to be common sense. Anyways, just an idea.

  7. leon Avatar
    leon

    Seems like a waste of time if you ask me; for every blogger that agrees there will be a hundred that will think fuck you.

  8. Tman Avatar
    Tman

    Please don’t take this in a negative way, but you sound more and more like a PJ O’Rourke conservative every day.
    “He requires us to promise to “work in the community interest.” What community? What interest? Who’s to say what the community interest is? I can only guarantee that I will post in my interest; whether I post in the community’s interest, the community will have to decide.”
    That’s pure individual liberty, which is a cornerstone of conservatism.
    Again, I think this is a good thing so please don’t take it the wrong way…..

  9. Drew Avatar
    Drew

    I’m still not sure what these guys are up to. I think they ought to let it evolve naturally instead of trying to force things.
    I see a problem with starting at too large of a scale.

  10. Jeff Jarvis Avatar
    Jeff Jarvis

    Timan: I have been made a populist by the internet, weblogs, and even being a tv critic (when I had to learn that if you give the people good stuff, they’ll watch it). It all has taught me to trust the wisdom of the people more than I used to. That was — and I hate to put that in the past tense — a hallmark of liberalism, no? I think it’s very liberal of me….

  11. Jeff Jarvis Avatar
    Jeff Jarvis

    Ben:
    Quite right. Taking my own pledge is one matter. Asking others too is another.

  12. Karl Avatar
    Karl

    Did your new employeers have you sign contracts having to do with company data, competition, and so forth?

  13. John Ettorre Avatar
    John Ettorre

    Tman, I don’t know why you’re so solicitous about poor Jeff’s feelings. Yes, he’s a conservative. It’s as simple as that, and I’ve been saying it and noticing it for over a year. Of course Jarvis would have a problem with a pledge about working for community interests (how coy of him to ask what community? It’s not really that complicated an answer, now is it?). How would he square that with being a fan of the foul-mouthed lowbrow imbecile Howard Stern? Even Jarvis isn’t creative enough to do that, so he simply short-circuits it by opting out. As always, shame on you, Jarvis.

  14. Ethan Avatar
    Ethan

    It’s sort of amazing that someone as influential as Jeff politically could be so lacking in any sort of basic political education. “Liberalism,” philosophically, was and is a broad Enlightenment doctrine worked through by Locke, Rousseau and Smith. That doctrine believes in the individual as well as the group, but certainly prefers the individual. This broad doctrine gave birth to two attitudinal political philosophies, that we today call conservatism and liberalism. They are both the progeny of the earlier liberalism, but are surely not the same.

  15. EverKarl Avatar
    EverKarl

    Clearly, being a fan of Howard Stern is the defining feature of modern American conservativism. Just ask Jeff’s best buds, Brent Bozell and James Dobson. When E! announced it was dropping Stern’s TV show, it was like a graveyard over at the Parents’ Television Council.

  16. Ethan Avatar
    Ethan

    Sure, it’s a libertarian brand of conservatism, but it’s conservatism nonetheless.

  17. John Ettorre Avatar
    John Ettorre

    Good point, Ethan. Most thinking people realize that there’s just a sliver of difference between libertarianism (and its nihilist instinct) and conservatism. The beauty of blogging is that people can’t hide who they really are. The more Jarvis writes, the more his real self emerges from the closet.

  18. Ethan Avatar
    Ethan

    That Jeff’s “real self” is coming to light is a good thing, I think. My problem with Jeff is not that he is a conservative; God knows I have always read Sullivan more than any other blogger. My problem is that he is a conservative who seeks–perhaps out of ignorance–to claim that he is in fact a “true” liberal, while the reality is, Jeff’s instincts are simply conservative.

  19. laurence haughton Avatar
    laurence haughton

    There’s a connection between this and your post on Dell below.
    Gillmor’s pledge is nothing more than vague, high-minded generalities that provide no clear direction. It’s journalistic goobledegook, much like Dell’s code of conduct.
    The big question for any organization (or individual) is how specific, measurable and accountable are your pledges, mission statements, codes of conduct? Where’s the bar? How can you tell when you’ve fallen short? Who is going to tell you, “You need to pick up your game.”

  20. Anna Haynes Avatar
    Anna Haynes

    What Karl said:
    “Did your new employeers have you sign contracts having to do with company data, competition, and so forth?”
    If “be honest” is enough, why do we need contracts, ever? Why did the SPJ bother coming up with a Code of Ethics for journalists?
    If I’m only an occasional Buzzmachine reader, how do I know that you and I mean the same thing by “be honest”? You’ve probably never even seen my blog; how do you know what I mean by “be honest”? Did Armstrong Williams think he was being honest?
    I agree that as written, the Bayosphere code leaves much to be desired. How would you change it, to make it more useful?

  21. nick Avatar
    nick

    Jeff’s right/left tilt isn’t the issue really. For me, the whole idea of “citizen journalists” is ill-concieved and a trojan horse. It’s an end run around journalistic standards. I think it was Moynihan that said everyone is intitled to their own opinion but not their own facts. Jeff and his pal Glenn Reynolds are trying to turn that phrase on it’s head. Facts are whatever the majority of conservative bloggers sanction as facts. These citizen journalists are free to ignore inconvenient facts if they conflict with their view of the world. None of this would matter if the Jeff Jarvis’s and Glenn Reynolds weren’t so influential but unfortunately, they are. Everyday, millions of eyeballs are funneled from these sights to other conservative opinion sites and back again. It’s an echo chamber. One where things are repeated and re-repeated to reinforce the spin. Eventually, the spin becomes the fact. Once people believe it, convincing even intelligent people that they are wrong is a very difficult task. Thus, a good many people believe the lies the swiftboat vets told about John Kerry. Many more believe there is some sort of direct link between 9/11 and Saddam Hussein. Even when presented with the facts in black and white most of us will not easily retreat from our position. This is what the citizen journalists will be peddling everyday. Propaganda and opinion disguised as news.

  22. tony Avatar
    tony

    stern is the #1 morning man across the country. to do that you have to appeal to both liberal and conservatives. fortunately for stern, dick jokes, and cutting edge interviews with celebs and retards know no party bounds.
    also Stern’s politics are not all that predictable: he backed Pataki, Whitman, and Guiliani and was only reluctantly backed Bill Clinton’s re-election. The only reason Stern was so anti-Bush was because Bush was trying to kick Stern off the airwaves.
    So yes, Jeff may lean a little too far-Right for your tastes, but Howard Stern is way more “conservative” than mr. jarvis will probably ever be.
    p.s. however i might have to take that last line out since Jeff’s comment box stopped me from writing pe-nis. :)

  23. Jeff Jarvis Avatar
    Jeff Jarvis

    Wouldn’t it be terrible to think that liberals ceded trusting The People to conservatives and libertarians. Wouldn’t it be a shame if liberals took over conservative attitude of snobbery about the masses. If anyone should trust the masses, shouldn’t it be liberals. Or are progressives different? Come on, my fellow travelers, listen to yourselves.

  24. Ethan Avatar
    Ethan

    Jeff:
    Would it be so terrible for you just to admit that you are, by any definition of the word, a conservative?
    Belief in “the people” is neither Right nor Left.

  25. Ethan Avatar
    Ethan

    You can, in fact, be a right-wing populist.

  26. nick Avatar
    nick

    “Wouldn’t it be terrible to think that liberals ceded trusting The People to conservatives and libertarians. Wouldn’t it be a shame if liberals took over conservative attitude of snobbery about the masses”
    You can’t really believe what you imply here. That if you’re Liberal you think this and if you’re conservative, you think that. Conservatives believe in empowering people as long as they don’t want medical marijuana or gay marriage. I am sure there are many examples of hypocrisy on the other side of the aisle. The point, fellow traveler, is that words can be twisted and their meaning perverted. The fascists and the Soviets used to call for empowerment of the masses also.

  27. Jeff Jarvis Avatar
    Jeff Jarvis

    Ethan: Some said here that empowering the people is convservative. I couldn’t leave that canard unanswered.

  28. Anna Haynes Avatar
    Anna Haynes

    It’s also worth keeping in mind what aspects of “the people” you’re talking about empowering. Anyone who saw Hotel Rwanda saw hordes of people who were empowered, by talk radio no less, to cause something other than the milk of human kindness to flow from other people.
    (In case anyone thinks that to draw parallels is to assert identities: no, I am not saying “talk radio host == would-be murderer”; to my knowledge nobody on talk radio in this country is advocating slaughter of neighbors, even though the occasional political activist may stray in that direction – but encouraging fear/anger/hatred is a different beast from encouraging reflective thought and consideration, to give one obvious pair of diametrically opposed mental places.)

  29. Tman Avatar
    Tman

    Jeff,
    When I say conservative I don’t mean the uber-right wing republican evangelical kind, I mean more like the PJ O’Rourke kind.
    Aw hell, I’ll let him explain it…
    PJ O’Rouke:How to Explain Conservatism to Your Squishy Liberal Friends: Individualism ‘R’ Us

  30. ralph phelan Avatar
    ralph phelan

    “work in the community interest.”
    That phrase reeks of everything that’s wrong with the MSM. When you try to “work in the community interest” you become just another agenda-driven, self-righteous, crusading liberal propagandist.
    Please, just tell me about interesting stuff that’s going on.

  31. ralph phelan Avatar
    ralph phelan

    “work in the community interest.”
    That phrase reeks of everything that’s wrong with the MSM. When you try to “work in the community interest” you become just another agenda-driven, self-righteous, crusading liberal propagandist.
    Please, just tell me about interesting stuff that’s going on.

  32. ralph phelan Avatar
    ralph phelan

    “work in the community interest.”
    That phrase reeks of everything that’s wrong with the MSM. When you try to “work in the community interest” you become just another agenda-driven, self-righteous, crusading liberal propagandist.
    Please, just tell me about interesting stuff that’s going on.

  33. sean bonner Avatar
    sean bonner

    I think the wiki idea is a great one so I put it up here:
    http://wiki.metroblogging.com/wikka.php?wakka=CitizenJournalistPledge