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On Recognizing Genuinely Ethical Journalism
“Fundamentally,” said Mordecai Richler, “all writing is about the same thing; it’s about dying, about the brief flicker of time we have here, and the frustration that it creates.”
Journalism is not creative writing. Journalism is a discipline that is taught and learned. To recognize solid journalistic ethics look for multiple primary sources and solidly supported facts, from the public record to the level of consistency across primary sources. As the informal creed of the old City News Bureau in Chicago put it, “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.”
Mechanics: Lead paragraph — short, around 25 words or less answering the basic questions of who, what, where, when, why and how; Always corroborate with attribution, from the perspectives of primary sources and as much public record (civil documentary items, like police, court and other civil records) as possible.
Journalistic trust can only be as solid as the facts they strive to uncover. As Edward R. Murrow once reminded the powerful suits of the broadcast industry in a speech before the Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) convention in Chicago, back on October 15, 1958, “It is not necessary to remind you of the fact that your voice, amplified to the degree where it reaches from one end of the country to the other, does not confer upon you…