The latest Gallup poll on respected professions saw journalists make a slight gain with regard to public perception with TV journalists one notch higher than those in print. I am not sure Americans pay much attention to British journalism. In fact, they might respond to the recent flap over Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid newspaper phone hacking as pretty standard procedure for British press.
Closer to home, a persistent problem remains, particularly with television news — checkbook journalism.
The fairly common practice of TV news stations, especially national network stations, paying sources for interviews and information represents and ethical breach that tarnishes all journalism.
It’s not a new trend, but those who do it are confronted frequently by journalists and journalism organizations.
In the short term, stations often admit to the practice and say it won’t happen again.
In the long term, it does happen again.
Unlike in some countries, American journalists police themselves.
The effort to create a national news council — a kind of journalistic court fort bad behavior--failed for a number of reasons. State news councils have seen limited success, most notably the Minnesota News Council in its 41st year.
Journalism organizations’ Codes of Ethics, such as the one crafted by the Society of Professional Journalists and used by many news entities, offer guidelines that help lead journalists to thoughtful decisions. But these codes are not binding and do not sanction news organizations that might breach their tenets.
Journalism, like all institutions, comes with its shortfalls. But it remains a lynchpin of democracy and from my viewpoint — albeit a biased one — it does far more good than harm day in and day out.
Nevertheless, paying sources for access and interviews breaks a fundamental rule of one of the SPJ code’s four main, remaining independent.
The American news media has a lot of ills to cure, and checkbook journalism should top the list.
Resources:
- http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/13/…
- http://www.gallup.com/poll/145043/…
- http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp
- http://news-council.org/
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