A Sinful Culture

Olivia Usitalo
ou813610@ohio.edu

Corruption of Ethics and Journalism’s “Summer of Sin”

“Leaders in a profession dedicated to shining a light on truth and helping enforce accountability need to meet the same standard of transparency they demand of others.” - Craig Silverman

Over the years, and especially recently, journalism’s original purpose of seeking truth and revealing it to the public has been forgotten.  The ethical values of newsrooms and newspapers are hard to recognize and often mistaken for corruption or voluntary ignorance. Sometimes even, the corruption is true. In his article, “Journalism’s Summer of Sin Marked by Plagiarism, Fabrication, Obfuscation”, Craig Silverman describes how during the summer of 2012 newsrooms and general journalism was plagued with “a cavalcade of plagiarism, fabrication and unethical recycling damaged several careers and publications." He writes about how these sloppy mistakes were never repealed but merely brushed under the rug by newsroom leaders and organizations. Silverman urges the need to eliminate plagiarizers and empower ethic committees and continues to list his ideas for reducing incidents like fabrication and plagiarism in newsrooms.
   
Silverman makes a great point about the influence of unethical journalism. He believes that if journalists “stonewall and hide behind vague public statements when ethical breaches happen within our ranks, then we embolden politicians and other public figures and sources to do the same”. It’s an interesting domino effect, shedding light on the fact that the press has more influence on society’s ethical codes than it is given credit for. We can only hope newsroom leaders understand the power they wield and use their power for good.

“Confronting the Culture”

The problem of fabrication and plagiarism among journalists has become so rampant in today’s world that it is no longer considered a incident -- it’s now a part of a culture; a newsroom culture. No longer can writers and newsroom leaders blame the individual corrupt writer or the young newbie who can’t handle the stress of their job. The goal of journalists everywhere has evolved from simply revealing the truth into getting the truth first. The ethical values of newsrooms do not hold the top priority title anymore -- ratings do. It’s a competition that has degraded the ultimate values of an ethical journalist and has lessened the public’s view of the entire industry.

So why do journalists often seem to skate the borders of plagiarism? Where is their ethical codes? Some believe it’s not that their ethics are nonexistent, but that they aren’t particularly made clear. Newsroom leaders have written up an ethics code, but do no enforce it on their writers, claiming it to be unethical to enforce their ideologies on others. Seems counterproductive, right? Mark J. Hanson, interim director of the Center for Ethics at the University of Montana, told Lori Robertson in her article, "Confronting The Culture" that he thinks so. He believes for an “ethical culture” to be established in an organization, there has to be influence from its leaders; ethics needs to be “displayed and fostered and encouraged in a positive way by management”. Something that, unfortunately, isn’t necessarily happening.

Welcome Greeks Bearing Gifts

The issue comes down to two questions, how do we fix it? and if we can’t completely eliminate it, how can we make it the smallest evil it can be? The answer seems simple: remember the real purpose of journalism and strictly follow your ethics code. The actual outcome, however, is not so simple. Ethics and morals stretch through a broad spectrum of opinions and beliefs, sometimes the majority and sometimes not. One journalist might not hold the same moral standards as their co-worker. There will always be a competitive edge between organizations and newsrooms, even if their ethical code is similar. 

What is all boils down to is the leaders -- the heads of organizations and the directors and producers of any type of media that can influence the public. In an uncanny way, they hold a majority of power over everyone in society. Whether it be a middle-class family or a CEO of a large company, the public is influenced by the news and the stories journalists publish. It is up to the leaders of media to be moral journalists -- to uphold truth as the most important value and establish a strong ethical code, so insuring those that work under them may do the same. As Hanson said, “The ancient Greeks believed that "one learns to be a good person from other good people”. Let’s hope the Greeks were right. 

photo: http://inspirationtomotivation.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/leadership-and-penguins/