Yesterday’s rush by alleged news media to put the wrong information out first was excoriated by today’s New York Times article titled The F.B.I. Criticizes the News Media After Several Mistaken Reports of an Arrest.
The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism lists nine core principles for providing “…citizens with accurate and reliable information they need to function in a free society.”
Yesterday’s travesty by various skewsmedia managed to mangle the first three of those principles with no difficulty at all.
Should cc the nine core principles to the cda press.
Comment by up river — April 19, 2013 @ 8:46 am
up river,
It would not be worth the effort.
In April 2011 a national project named “Who Needs Newspapers?” interviewed Coeur d’Alene Press Editor Mike Patrick. In response to a question about ethics, Patrick reportedly told interviewers that the Press doesn’t have a written code of ethics. “Instead their [the Press’s] ethical litmus test is, ‘Is this the right thing to do for the community and the right thing to do for the newspaper?’ ”
Comment by Bill — April 19, 2013 @ 9:02 am
Sounds like the Press operates under an adaptation of Joseph Fletcher’s Situational Ethics. Fletcher was an Episcopal priest that stated that decision-making should be based upon the circumstances of a particular situation. In other words so long as Love is one’s intention, the end justifies the means. If a person believes it is in another persons best interest that he/she be lied to or misled…go for it. Now, where or where have I read that in local webpage? Hmm. I wonder, does this mean that the cda press and other guardians of ‘the truth’ report based on a philosophy that the ‘press’ (owner, management, reporters) knows what is best for the cda residents and thus if it takes lying and misleading statements to reach ‘what is best’ for them, then go for it?
Comment by up river — April 19, 2013 @ 10:17 am
up river,
Oh, yeah. When I was an in a sociology class at WSU in the last century, situational ethics was in vogue. Right is what’s right for the best outcome for now, and therefore there is no such thing as wrong.
Your comparison of Fletcher’s situation ethics to the Press’s rationalization of its selective reporting was right on the money.
Comment by Bill — April 19, 2013 @ 12:34 pm