The Splinter in Your Brother’s Eye
May 8th, 2005 at 6:42 am by Susie
Some days, it’s just too easy. Here’s an opinion piece in today’s Times about blogging ethics:
Bloggers are so used to thinking of themselves as outsiders, and watchdogs of the LSM (that’s Lame Stream Media), that many have given little thought to what ethical rules should apply in their online world.
“Lame Stream Media”? Did I miss the memo, or is this the latest from the Little Green Footballs crowd?
Every mainstream news organization has its own sets of ethics rules, but all of them agree broadly on what constitutes ethical journalism. Information should be verified before it is printed, and people who are involved in a story should be given a chance to air their viewpoints, especially if they are under attack. Reporters should avoid conflicts of interest, even significant appearances of conflicts, and disclose any significant ones. Often, a conflict means being disqualified to cover a story or a subject. When errors are discovered or pointed out by internal or external sources, they must be corrected. And there should be a clear wall between editorial content and advertising.
Well, see, Adam, here’s the funny thing. We’ve noticed that media ethics codes (much like corporate mission statements) are more closely observed in the breach. I especially like this one:
Someone would be likely to notice if a newspaper reporter covering a campaign was also on the campaign’s staff. But it is hard to know who many bloggers are, and whether they are paid to take the positions they are espousing.
Uh, not quite, Adam. Because so many “journalists” take an unofficial role in a campaign - you know, like when George Will coached Ronald Reagan for his debates? - the media consumers are left totally in the dark. We find out years later, if at all.
I daresay most casual TV viewers have little idea that John Stossel, investigative reporter, collects so much cash on the side for speaking to the very corporate interests he purports to watch. And I won’t even get into Cokie Roberts, or the fact that NPR reporters are also holding gigs at the right-wing Fox News. Talk about serving two masters…
Bloggers may need to institutionalize ethics policies to avoid charges of hypocrisy. But the real reason for an ethical upgrade is that it is the right way to do journalism, online or offline. As blogs grow in readers and influence, bloggers should realize that if they want to reform the American media, that is going to have to include reforming themselves.
Dude, how about you remove that big old plank from your bloodshot media eye before you go picking splinters out of ours? I’ll believe you’re sincere when I start seeing disclosures of every financial and social bias from your side of the fence. How many reporters play tennis with members of this administration?
You can’t hold us to a higher standard than you do yourselves. Isn’t that what you just told us?
I would be curious to know Adam Cohen’s view on the ethical proposition that one ought to disclose one’s one’s economic self interest ( e.g. getting paid by a newspaper that is part of corporate media) when one attacks the competition (blogs) in an unbalanced, name calling kind of way under the guise of calling that attack ‘journalism’.
One also would like to know about the quality of journalism that paints an entire category/phenemonon with the same brush…
It was then that Tulke found his way blocked by a tall daughter of Devon— that county of easy kisses, the pleasantest under the sun. He dodged aside politely. She reflected a moment, and laid a vast hand upon his shoulder.
“Where be ‘ee gwaine tu, my dearr?” said she.
Over the handkerchief he had crammed into his mouth Stalky could see the boy turn scarlet.
“Gie I a kiss! Don’t they larn ‘ee manners to College?”
Tulke gasped and wheeled. Solemnly and conscientiously Mary kissed him twice, and the luckless prefect fled.
She stepped into the shop, her eyes full of simple wonder. “Kissed ‘un?” said Stalky, handing over the money.
“Iss, fai! But, oh, my little body, he’m no Colleger. ‘Zeemed tu-minded to cry, like.”
“Well, we won’t. Yell couldn’t make us cry that way,” said McTurk. “Try.”
Whereupon Mary cuffed them all round.
As they went out with tingling ears, said Stalky generally, “Don’t think there’ll be much of a prefects’ meeting.”
“Won’t there, just!” said Beetle. “Look here. If he kissed her— which is our tack— he is a cynically immoral hog, and his conduct is blatant indecency. Confer orationes Regis furiosissimi, when he collared me readin’ “Don Juan.’”
“‘Course he kissed her,” said McTurk. “In the middle of the street. With his house-cap on!”
“Time, 3.57 p.m. Make a note o’ that. What d’you mean, Beetle?” said Stalky.
“Well! He’s a truthful little beast. He may say he was kissed.”
“And then?”
“Why, then!” Beetle capered at the mere thought of it. “Don’t you see? The corollary to the giddy proposition is that the Sixth can’t protect ‘emselves from outrages an’ ravishin’s. Want nursemaids to look after ‘em!
–
O the Times. O the Manners. Judith Miller. Adam Nagourney. Jodi Wilgoren. That Berke. Kit Seelye. Jeff Gerth. Boo Bumiller. That towering apex of 43rd Street Journalismic Ethical Culture at the corner of Nasdaq and Good Morning America. Can’t protect ‘emselves from outrages an’ ravishin’s. Tu minded to cry laike.
–
The Sixth were too taken aback to reply. So, carefully modelling his rhetoric on King, Beetle followed up the attack, surpassing and surprising himself, “It— it isn’t so much the cynical immorality of the biznai, as the blatant indecency of it, that’s so awful. As far as we can see, it’s impossible for us to go into Bideford without runnin’ up against some prefect’s unwholesome amours. There’s nothing to snigger over, Naughten. I don’t pretend to know much about these things— but it seems to me a chap must be pretty far dead in sin” (that was a quotation from the school chaplain) “when he takes to embracing his paramours” (that was Hakluyt) “before all the city” (a reminiscence of Milton). “He might at least have the decency— you’re authorities on decency, I believe— to wait till dark. But he didn’t. You didn’t! Oh, Tulke. You— you incontinent little animal!”
–
Thank goodness the Times is an authority on ethics.
– Dog, etc.
Bother. Likewise blow. I should have closed that tag …
Well. I should also have supplied the source, which is Kipling’s “Stalky & Co.”
http://www.projects.ex.ac.uk/trol/grol/kipling/stalky08.htm
Never, never, NEVER post before coffee.
– Dog.
that’s okay. Stuff happens, and it was a rather funny post.
As for the MSM (and to stay in the mood here), meseems the lady doth protest too much.
Suze:
“Lame Stream Media” was coined by John Fund, according to Danny Shechter. I.E., a mainstream journalist-like creature, not a “blogger” per se.
http://www.newsdissector.org/blog/2005/04/06/the-lame-stream-media/
As you surmised, it’s now common coin among the dittobloggers.