Combat Journalism: Consider Everything

Meghan Machenheimer | mm745416@ohio.edu

https://statepointmedia.com/a-journalistic-approach-to-mat-releases/  

From an outside perspective, journalists are known as people who report what is going on in today's society to the public. Whether that is reporting on a recent car crash, reporting on the latest presidential debate, or reporting on who wore what best at the Grammys. Journalists will always be the ones turned to when looking for the latest news in the world. From a journalist's perspective, there is so much more to consider when reporting on topics that the outside world doesn't think to consider. Journalists have to consider what is newsworthy and what is not. They have to consider what is ethically correct and what affect releasing information will have. They have to consider the benefits and the repercussions of what releasing certain information could do not only to them but to the company they work for and the people impacted by the information. With so much to consider, being a journalist in a time of war can be extremely challenging. 

Journalists who are stationed to cover what is going on during a time of war have a lot to consider when it comes to ethically reporting. They have to keep their credibility and trust with the public by reporting about what is taking place during that time. They also have to keep the trust with the military by not reporting about confidential information they have witnessed or heard about. They also have to be unbiased and uphold their professionalism when reporting, and they "must do what they can to avoid hate speech and inflammatory coverage."  

Ethics is one of the most significant factors in journalism, if not the biggest. In my opinion, if you can not report ethically, your credibility is lost, and your journalism career is out the door. When considering this, I think Ron Haeberle truly had to struggle as a combat photographer in Vietnam. As a combat photographer, he witnessed and photographed a lot of different things, one of them being the My Lai Massacre. Haeberle captured numerous photographs during the massacre and the aftermath of it. Knowing the massacre would cause an outrage; they tried to cover it up and downplay the events.  The massacre wasn't uncovered until Seymour Hersh's Pulitzer Prize-winning story was released to the public. A week later, Haeberle, who had been showing his photographs in a slide show to civic groups and local high schools in Ohio, released his pictures out to the public with a story in the Plain Dealer. 

When I was reading the stories about Haeberle and Hersh, I focused on it from a journalistic perspective and tried to put myself in their shoes. If I were Haeberle and I knew I had photos from a massacre that was getting covered up, would I release them right away? Would I release them later on? Or would I even release them at all? Considering all these questions about if I were to release the photos, I also have to consider all the ethical challenges that will come with my decision. After considering all these aspects, I think Haeberle and the Plain Dealer did the right thing by releasing the photos. Although they did receive repercussions for publishing the images, the benefit of keeping the trust with society and always reporting the truth outweighed them. 

Overall, all journalists are held to the same standard and follow very similar ethical codes. Knowing this, I think that most journalists would make similar decisions when it comes to what to release to the public and what to not release. Although it can be challenging at times to make certain decisions, the public should trust the journalist's reasoning on why they released the information.