►On SPJ’s Ethics Central discussion of the SPJ Code, Trusting News’s Lynn Walsh described specific ways that journalists should expose misconduct by fellow journalists: “It’s OK to say you don’t agree with how another news organization handled something. When doing so, explain how you would have done it differently based on your values and ethics. Be willing to admit the faults that exist in our industry when discussing journalism and news content with the public. Also be willing to show humility when discussing lapses of judgment or harm caused by your own staff.”
Source: https://ethicscentral.org/ethicscode/
►A textbook example of exposing unethical conduct within a news organization came in 1981, after The Washington Post discovered that a reporter invented facts for the “Jimmy’s World” story that later won a Pulitzer Prize. Editor Ben Bradlee assigned ombudsman Bill Green to write the story explaining how the fable fooled the paper’s editors and ended up in print. The story ran on multiple pages.
Bradlee explained his thinking about how he dealt with the case in his book A Good Life: Newspapering and other Adventures (Simon & Schuster, 1996) “…The truth is the best defense, and the whole truth the very best defense. Once we had identified the fraud, we set ourselves a simple goal. No one should ever learn anything more about the Janet Cooke case than The Washington Post itself revealed.”
Sources:
- https://www.cjr.org/the_feature/the_fabulist_who_changed_journalism.php
- https://www.newsombudsmen.org/
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1981/04/19/the-players-it-wasnt-a-game/545f7157-5228-47b6-8959-fcfcfa8f08eb/
- https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/A-Good-Life/Ben-Bradlee/9781501191718
►Longtime journalist Thomas Kent, in “Reporting on your own organization,” described how ethical news organizations can cover themselves.
Source: https://ethics.journalists.org/topics/reporting-on-your-own-organization/
►In Scientific American, philosophy professor Janet Stemwedel cited the SPJ Code when reminding that there are two ways to show people your commitment to ethical conduct: Act ethically yourself, and call out unethical conduct in others. She noted that criticism from inside a community is usually more effective than criticism from outsiders who may not understand the community’s standards.