The Evolution– and Devolution–

JULY 1999 Volume 28, Number 7 IMPRIMISBecause Ideas Have Consequences 27th The Evolution– year and Devolution– of Journalistic Ethics Marianne Jennings 845,000 subscribers Professor of Legal and Ethical Studies Arizona State University Journalists are the eyes and ears of society. arianne Jennings is an They gather, sift, and communicate millions of M award-winning newspaper pieces of information. But as Marianne columnist and radio commenta- Jennings warns, some journalists believe that tor, director of the Joan and the facts are less important than a story that David Lincoln Center for Applied “sells” or that promotes a cause. Ethics, and professor of legal Professor Jennings delivered her remarks at and ethical stud- the February 1999 Center for Constructive ies at Arizona State Alternatives seminar, “The Fourth Estate: A University. With undergrad- History of Journalism,” which was co-hosted by uate and law de- Hillsdale’s newly established Herbert H. Dow II grees from Brig- Program in American Journalism. ham Young Univer- sity, Dr. Jennings lawyer by training and a newspaper col- has written six text- umnist by avocation, I teach ethics at a books, and more business school. People tell me that’s than 130 articles. four oxymorons in one sentence. Her column in the AMy unusual career choices have made me Arizona Republic realize that lawyers, businessmen, and journal- has been reprinted ists wrestle with the same ethical concerns. But by the Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune, and other news- journalists face the greatest challenge. They not papers nationwide. A collection of only have to decide whether to follow a code of her essays, Nobody Fixes Real ethics personally but also whether that code Carrot Sticks Anymore, was pub- should apply to the stories and the subjects they lished in 1994. cover professionally. There’s an old joke about journalism that bears repeating: Imagine that the Lord has just given Moses the Ten Commandments, which are the core of the ethical systems of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. As the old Hebrew Also in this issue: prophet descends from the mountain, the Michael Medved reporters crowd around him for the inevitable Television News: press conference. Then they report breathlessly to Information or their television and radio audiences: “Ladies and Infotainment? Gentlemen, Moses has just returned from Mount A Monthly Publication of Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Michigan 49242 IMPRIMIS Because Ideas Have Consequences Sinai with Ten Commandments from God, the two •resists social change; most important of which are . .” •prefers the superficial and sensational; Unfortunately, journalists often regard ideas •endangers public morals; about right and wrong as old-fashioned and out- •invades privacy; moded. And they often fail to live up to high ethi- •is dominated by one socioeconomic class; cal standards. Consider this real-life admission by •interferes with the open marketplace of ideas. a famous reporter: Luce was livid when he read this report. He Tales of lawsuits no court had ever seen involv- feared that Congress would step in and take con- ing names no city directory had ever known, trol. Fortunately, Congress refrained, and we still poured from me. Tales of prodigals returned, have freedom of the press as outlined in the First hoboes come into fortune, families driven mad Amendment. by ghosts, vendettas that ended in love feasts, and A newspaper publisher was once confronted by all of them full of exotic plot turns involving par- a prominent businessman who complained, rots, chickens, goldfish, serpents, epigrams, and “I don’t like what your reporters and editors have second-act curtains. I made them all up. been saying about my company.” The publisher wisely replied, “I’m sorry, but I can’t control these Was it New Republic associate editor Stephen people.” We should not want to control “these peo- Glass? He was fired in May 1998 for making up out ple” through government regulation. But we of whole cloth half a dozen articles and fabricating should expect them to deal honestly and fairly with portions of more than 20 others. Or was it Boston their subjects, and we should hold them responsi- Globe columnists Patricia Smith and Mike ble in the courts and in the marketplace. Barnicle? It was revealed in June 1998 that they were allowed to keep on writing for years after their editors suspected that they were making up people Rights Without and events. Or was it CNN’s star producer April Oliver? Oliver was booted from the network in July Responsibilities 1998 after airing a false story claiming that the U.S. military used nerve gas in Laos. he 18th-century British conservative Actually, it was Ben Hecht, the legendary news- statesman Edmund Burke called the paperman who began his career at the Chicago press the “fourth estate,” implying that it Journal. In 1910, as a cub reporter, Hecht confessed was as important and as influential as to making up news stories and was suspended for a Tthe three estates, or branches, of government. His week. He was never again to write fiction as a jour- contemporary and ideological foe, the French nalist–but he did go on to do so as a highly success- philosopher Voltaire came up with what (as it was ful novelist and Hollywood screenwriter. You may later paraphrased) became the rallying cry of the remember seeing the original or one of the many press: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will remakes of his most famous screenplay, Front Page, defend to the death your right to say it.” Both men a 1928 comedy about–what else?–reporters caught would have agreed with former U.S. President up in their own lies. John Adams when he wrote in 1815: Journalists are tempted to fiddle with the truth because they need to write sensational stories that If there is ever to be an amelioration of the con- will sell newspapers. The “scoop” was everything dition of mankind, philosophers, theologians, back in 1910, and it still is today. legislators, politicians, and moralists will find that regulation of the press is the most difficult, dangerous, and important problem that they Freedom of have to resolve. Mankind cannot be governed the Press without it, nor at present with it. n 1947, Henry Luce, the founder of Time, A free press is necessary for the effective func- Life, and Fortune magazines, commissioned tioning of our republic. But it is also an invitation a report which concluded that the press: to abuse. Given all the scandals that have occurred I recently, journalists have been trying to agree •wields enormous power for its own ends; upon a professional code of ethics. The American •propagates its own opinions at the expense of Society of Newspaper Editors and the Society of opposing views; Professional Journalists have each published their •allows advertisers to dictate editorial content; own version. I have read them with interest. They 2 are well crafted and feature many sound ideas. But This student, like a number of ethically-chal- they err gravely by focusing less on journalists’ lenged journalists today, doesn’t seem to realize the conduct than on the “public’s right to know.” In importance of value-based decisionmaking. First other words, they say a lot about the rights and foremost, you should define the values that and very little about the responsibilities you hold most dear. I propose that journal- of the press. ists be guided by five important values. (I As an ethics professor, I have have borrowed them from novelist Ayn also found that those who rely Rand, but I could have easily found them in the most on written codes of conduct are the writings of many thinkers.) most unethical among us. They want a fancy document certifying their integrity Honesty that they can wave around, but they do not The first value is honesty. want to be bound by it. It is no wonder that one Journalists should not invent stories of America’s most popular journalists in the or “fudge” facts. Nor should they early to mid-20th century, American foster false impressions. This Mercury founder H.L. Mencken, called last provision may be the ethical codes for journalists “flap- most critical. My son Sam doodlish and unenforceable.” would never tell an out- right lie, but he is willing to tell less than the whole Value-Based truth. His second grade teacher put his name on the chalkboard if he Decisionmaking failed to follow the rules. My husband and I asked him every day after school, “Did you get your any journalists are content to practice name on the board?” and he would answer truth- what I call “Jurassic Park ethics.” fully. When he was in the third grade, we asked Have you seen Jurassic Park? You the same question, and the answer was always should, if for no other reason than “No.” We were thrilled that his conduct had been becauseM a lawyer is eaten alive. In this movie, a so exemplary. wealthy businessman finds a way to genetically Then we learned from his teacher that she had engineer DNA so as to revive extinct species. changed the policy; names were no longer written He uses this ingenious process to create a theme on the chalkboard but on index cards. We went park full of live dinosaurs. He stands to make home from parent-teacher conferences to confront untold millions, but his lawyers are afraid that our son: “Sam, you lied to us. You told us that you the park is unsafe. To allay their fears, the devel- were good.” Sam replied earnestly, “No, I did not lie oper invites a team of scientists to investigate.

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