Jacob Motta
JM186818@ohio.edu
Conflicts of interest can be a problem in any work environment, but they especially play a huge role in journalism. If a journalist, or a journalism company has a conflict of interest with something they are covering, that can lead to bias for or against what or who is being covered.
Let's take ESPN's journalism problem for example, the NFL and the college football playoffs (CFP) make ESPN so much money, so you can only expect that they are going to push these things hard. They have T.V. contracts for the NFL as well as the CFP that add up to roughly 22.5 billion dollars. This can lead to bias when covering, promoting, and writing about things that do not deal with the NFL or the CFP. Take the MLB for example, when baseball is in the postseason you see so many ads for NFL games that are going on at the same time, but when watching those NFL games you do not see nearly as many advertisements for postseason baseball.
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| Picture source: ESPN's journalism problem |
ESPN promotes these things because that is what will make them the most money, and I understand that making money is important, but this is a clear conflict of interest for ESPN. If they had more contract money tied up with the MLB I am sure that things would flip around, and we would see ESPN promote way more professional baseball.
Reporting with bias can be a huge problem for journalists, as well as the organizations that they work for. In an article written by David Poulson for the Great Lakes Echo, he says, "You seek the truth regardless of where it lies". This should be the motto for all journalists, no matter if the truth is something that you want to hear, or that you agree with, it is the journalists job to report it.
Many organizations are too caught up in reporting what a specific group of people want to hear. Take Fox News or CNN for example, they both report on things to cater to their specific audiences, no matter if they need to bend the truth to get their viewers to like what they have to say. The audience is also part of the issue, people should not look for things they want to hear, people should seek the truth and only the truth. If everyone was to seek the truth, and not wait for someone, or some organization to bend facts into what they want to believe, then maybe the truth would be more sought out to be told and more people may go looking for it.
Hi Jacob!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your article! As a big sports fanatic and someone who hopes to one day work for ESPN, I have noticed the major issue ESPN deals with in regards to conflicts of interest. Too often it seems that certain companies let the market dictate the story. For example, in the case of ESPN, it seems that ESPN would overlook a great game if it was in a small market. To be more specific, if the Cincinnati Reds went to extra innings with the San Francisco Giants and the Boston Red Sox beat the New York Yankees 14-3,it seems that ESPN would give more publicity to the Red Sox v Yankees game. Other news outlets also seem to express a lack of independence and focus on the market by reporting in a way they know will get them the most ratings. I find this to be a troublesome issue that often goes overlooked too often and is not ethical reporting.