Ethics in Reporting News

Part One: Ethics in Reporting News

And How it Affects Readers

The First Amendment, from the Bill of Rights, in the Constitution of the United States of America states that: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

A horrifying situation that any Editor in Chief, of a newspaper, can face is when a reporter is caught fabricating sources and making up facts. The First Amendment protects freedom of speech; however that does not make falsifying information in news stories ethical. There are ethics codes that reporters are taught in journalism school, and they must be upheld when a reporter is conflicted about violating their integrity, while committing unethical acts. If a reporter is that emotionally desperate for a story, they will do whatever it takes to make the story believable. This is not to say that the reporters themselves are unethical. Rather, the system they work within frequently encourages unethical behavior. Pressure to attract readership, satisfy advertisers and write within newspaper guidelines, often put pressure on reporters to behave unethically. By falsifying, or exaggerating information, leaking privileged information in a story, and transmitting partisan information with little scrutiny, the big media conglomerates have undermined their reputations, and thos3e of their reporters, as objective messengers of news. When these indiscretions in judgment occur, the media reduces their medium from an art form to mere tabloid journalism and entertainment news.

There are several ways to encourage ethical behavior in media, with reporters, but it does not start with reporters. The Editor in Chief needs to make the newspaper’s ethics policies very clear and to the point. A policy that states: Any and all...