Ethics Archive
27 Jan 2014
Indianapolis Star gets wits scared out of it by ridiculous demonic possession story
Offered as an object lesson in reporting: This credulous Indianapolis Star story about the demonic possession of a family. An editor for the Star promoted the piece on Twitter like this: Delusion or demonic possession? You decide. http://t.co/jDtwLav31Q via @indystar — Eric Dick (@IndyStarEric) January 26, 2014 No, no, no. That’s like saying “Earth —
11 Dec 2013
Journalism ethics: Why we are responsible for the mud-slinging in our comments
If journalists have an ethical duty to protect those who provide content, what does that mean in practical terms? I’ve seen much discussion of a duty of care regarding journalists who, as part of their job, take physical risks or cover events that leave psychological trauma. At the higher levels of journalism, where foreign correspondents
07 Dec 2013
Journalism ethics: How a hierarchical code would apply to a real-life decision
Jimmy Olsen rushes into the newsroom waving a CD-ROM. “Got it,” he says, almost out of breath. Lois Lane snatches the disk and slides it into the side of her MacBook, firing up its Audacity sound-editing program. She opens the first file on the CD. After a second or two of quiet static, a woman’s
04 Dec 2013
Journalism ethics: Duties to our audience, our subjects, and ourselves
When one of my reporters was leaving to become a manager at another paper, I gave him this advice: Make the readers your first priority, your staff second, and everything else a distant third. Putting aside the clues that may offer to why I’m no longer a working journalist, the key thing is that I
03 Dec 2013
Journalism ethics: 5 levels that bring broad principles down to real-life decisions
Over my years in newspapers, I went to many mandatory in-house seminars on copyright and libel issues. Had to attend annual sessions on how to evacuate our building in case of fire, and participate in fire drills. Number of in-house formal discussions of ethics: Two. Not mandatory. And those were discussions I chaired. I know
25 Nov 2013
Why does the New York Times think it has to preserve its misjudgments online?
What should news media be willing to change about old online stories, and what should they insist on keeping unchanged? I faced this problem while Online Editor for The Plain Dealer. We regularly got calls from individuals or “reputation managers” (i.e., Internet fixers) who wanted us to make old stories go away. Usually, the stories
09 Oct 2013
Why stories full of holes end up in print and online
Jim Romenesko drew the journosphere’s attention yesterday to a note from The Oklahoman’s publisher, apologizing for a recent story about a couple of politicians. Not that anything in the story was false, the publisher wrote, but its “placement on the front page of Sunday’s edition did not comport with the worthiness of the story.” We
05 Oct 2013
In defense of viral bullshit (sort of)
Follow the bouncing meme: T-shirt seller FCKH8 posts a photo it says it got from a supporter, supposedly of a man’s letter to his daughter, disowning her for disowning her gay son. Photo of letter starts to go viral, triggering post by Gawker. In comments underneath, Gawker owner Nick Denton and editor John Cook disagree
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