Honesty is the Best Policy. Right?

Brea Burks
bb901211@ohio.edu

I should be surprised by how people will sneak around to gain power, but I'm not. As you can see with this election, anyone can run for power and anyone can get their hands on the "right" sources to sound credible enough to trick the public. 

The people who are making fake identities and who are getting paid under the table are blocking people from actually knowing the truth. Then they wonder why you can't believe anything that is put on the internet. We have caught on to the lies that are, unfortunately, being told everyday by "credible sources," which makes us second guess everything that going on in our country.

One thing that keeps popping into my mind is the political campaign going on right now. The debate that happened last night was very interesting. Well, all of them were, honestly. But, I feel as if every point was trying to see which person is more "worse" of a person to become your president. I do believe that news reporters, publicists, companies, etc. are being paid secretively to tell a skewed story of the truth. I also believe that both candidates are now just digging up more horrible information about one another and trying to hide their past so someone can be more fit. 

When we were little kids, we were always taught that “honesty is the best policy.”

I guess the point I am trying to get at is, when has honesty become the absolute lie in today's world?

Photo by: http://quotesgram.com/cartoons-and-quotes-on-honesty/

That question gets tied to the article we had to read about Josh Shaw. According to the LA Times, USC's athletic department’s social media director sent out a six paragraph statement that Shaw saved his 7-year-old from drowning. But it did not take long for news companies to find out the truth in that story.

It later was confirmed by Shaw (less than 48 hours) that the story was a lie. Do you see why I ask such a complex question? Why do you need to lie about something that never happened? I am happy to hear that some news reporters are still checking their sources to make sure a story is true before they back it up with another story stating the same information.

Another article that stood out to me was the story about Armstrong Williams being paid under the table to promote No Child Left Behind (NCLB) campaign. He was paid $240,000 to do so.

There are multiple issues with this story. One issue is when does the ethical line come to play? Yes, you might believe in this campaign but do you really need to be paid to discuss it on your outlets? Also, you should always second guess information that you would become more bias to.

We, as journalists, have a certain name to uphold in the industry. However, if certain journalists keep tainting our good name, the audience has no one to trust. I think it’s time to weed out the good and bad journalists and get back to the “good times,” where our audience didn’t have to question every word that we typed on our computer.