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WebWord Weblog Posting Posting Date: May 26, 2002 Stop the Presses -- "Now, taken in a certain sense, this is not a criticism but a recognition of the job reporters are pledged to do. They are pledged to report the truth about matters of interest to the public. They are not pledged to be nice to you, or to take your side in a controversy, or to rehearse every little nuance of your argument." (Comments: I feel like this article puts an interesting spin on Adam Curry's Big Lie article. I'm curious, how do you feel about this statement: The press is in business to make money, not to tell the truth. By the way, for the for record, I've met some very good people who write for a living. They have integrity and they do a great job reporting.)
Reader Comments...
Saying "the press is in business to make money, not to tell the truth" is like saying "the doctors are in business to make money, not to heal people" ... although not quite to the same extreme. Professions have professional codes of behaviour. Doctors have their "do no harm" oath, lawyers respect and follow the system of law, journalists have their creed of truth. In decreasing scale of adherance. Posted by: Eric Scheid on May 26, 2002 01:41 PM
As always, the jargon is telling. News papers call it "filling the news hole," because the news fits in between the advertising layouts. And contrary to popular belief, there is no "truth" creed, that's for public consumption. The practical day-to-day of the work is the story which can be made from available facts. If it bleeds it leads. ...Not a rule-of-thumb fostering putting this week's anomalous events into the context of a gradually declining crime rate. Or even trying to explain why the crime rate might be declining (demographic shifts ...we're getting too old on average). No, most news audiences will get the impression crime has been increasing. The news is founded on a creed of truth uttered at an award banquet, but built of the hundreds of workaday examples of getting that story angle. Not perspective, not context. Follow what people do, not what they say about what they do. (First rule of observation, usability or otherwise). The only saving grace is comparing it to what comes after, again telling: Web site content. ...Could be called information. ...Could be called substance. It isn't. Posted by: (the other)JS on May 26, 2002 02:55 PM
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