Journalism Ethics in an Unfriendly Climate

Nick Henthorn

nh685616@ohio.edu

Being a journalist is hard. Movies like The Paper or True Crime portray the profession as a thrill ride, where a journalist finds him or herself whisked away from one exciting and important story to the next. On the contrary, many journalists, especially young ones, spend their time on a beat reporting the everyday rigamarole for everyday people.

The job is oftentimes thankless, and sometimes even dangerous. The New York Times reported that the number of jailed journalists is at an all-time high. Yet no matter how mind-numbing the job may look, or how perilous a story might be, it is important that journalists always strive to stick to a ethical code, and not compromise themselves and the business for a piece of news, boring or dangerous.

Anyone can talk up their strict, personal, ethical code with the upmost conviction when they are in Millersport, Ohio reporting on their 70th annual Sweet Corn Festival, but things can change when the stakes are raised. For all the talk of boring beat reporting, there will come a time for some journalists where they have the opportunity to investigate a 'big' story. This came to spotlight reporters at the New York Times during the Catholic Church abuse scandal. It came to Woodward and Bernstein at the Washington Post during Watergate. These investigations, where journalists have monolithic religious or governmental institutions breathing down their back, are when we show our true colors.

There were points in those investigations where the reporters could've said "that's good enough" or "I'm pretty sure that's right." It certainly would've been easier than the months of interviews, document analysis, and investigative reporting that those journalists subjected themselves to.

Credit: South Carolina Liberty

All the better though, that they maintained their ethics and meticulously went about their business, for two reasons. One, that they knew that every detail in every sentence of the story was correct, so that the investigation would be iron-clad and invulnerable to scrutiny from the parties it effected. Two, that they preserved their dignity and reputation, as well as the reputation of news journalists as a whole, because in the public eye the entirety of journalists are often judged by the actions of a few, so we all must be as ethical and accurate as possible. The credibility of any journalist relies on the credibility of journalism as a whole.

This mandate becomes all the more challenging when journalists are actively presented with new obstacles and hurdles between them and their jobs. The Washington Post reported on Reporters Without Borders' press freedom report-card, and the rankings and details about them showed how journalists are impeded from doing the most important parts of their jobs. Legislature like the Espionage Act makes 'whistleblowers' susceptible to prosecution, and government leaders in certain places across the world have taken a predatory stance towards their journalists.

But difficulty does not exempt ethics. A new hurdle does not justify cheating to get around it. No matter how many laws and threats are levied toward journalists, we must be better. We must know what lines we will never cross and what shortcuts we will never take, and we must always keep them in mind. Now is a crucial time for the legitimacy of the journalism business, all the way from Watergate to the Sweet Corn Festival. To all the journalists who see the value in what they do; we must not lower our standards to stay afloat.