The Power of Journalistic Honesty

Honesty is one of the biggest aspects of good journalism. Furthermore, honesty is the biggest asset journalists have when it comes to gaining the public's trust. That is why it hurts the community of journalists when even one reporter or news source fabricates a story, especially when it's found out to have been a deliberate lie rather than a careless mistake. On Ranker.com, there is an article that lists a number of journalists who have previously been caught in lies, falsifications, and ignoring their duty to society of honest reporting. A specific one that stood out to me was a reporter named Juan Thomson. He was a reporter for national-security focused website, The Intercept. He was accused of fabricating quotes, making up sources, and even "creating a fake email address in order to impersonate a source." Someone that desperate for a quote may just not be a good and honest reporter. A similar situation happened with New York Times staff reporter, Jayson Blair. The Times went on to call Blair's blatant lies a "low point in the 152-year history of the newspaper." These are just two examples of countless moments that journalists ignored their loyalty to the public, eventually making the press as a whole look like people you can't trust. Did these people create what is now called "fake news"?

Via Mercatornet.com, Denyse O'Leary

According to Edelman's Trust Barometer 2021, trust in many aspects of society has been weakened. Some credit this to Covid-19, the shift of President and party ruling Congress, and the blatant bias some news networks and reporters have in today's political climate; not to mention the occasional lies to the public like we mentioned above. What the Trust Barometer explains is that all of these drop's in public trust hurts every industry. According to this article, "without a trusted leadership source to look to, people don't know where or who to get reliable information. The global infodemic has driven trust in all news sources to record lows with social media and owned media the least trusted; traditional media saw the largest drop in trust." 

While I do believe that people like Thompson and Blair hurt all journalists when it comes to earning the public's trust, it seems to be much bigger than a handful of reporters who fabricate stories. It comes down to the way in which the media interact with political figures, how they present this newsworthy information, and how they handle addressing mistakes. I believe that reporters and news networks can gain trust from the public once they circle back to the biggest aspect of good journalism, honesty.