CHAPTER 22
	Ethics and the RTDNA Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct

ETHICS

Ethics in journalism isn’t about a chapter stuck at the end of a book. If you go back (or remember back), you’ll find notes on ethical behavior in almost every chapter.

Inventing quotes and interviews, stealing (plagiarizing) columns, inadequate fact-checking, running PR-supplied video or stories as if they’re news … the list of print and broadcast news failures has been widely reported.

The toll on the public’s perception of journalism is incalculable. The notion that it might be necessary to tell people not to cheat or invent or plagiarize seems absurd. Surely some things should go without saying. Apparently not.

Broadcast appears to have less of a problem with invented quotes and stories, but it’s probably just the nature of the beast. Television must have pictures, and it’s hard to fake that, although one network did use its “green board” to make it look like its reporters were outside on location rather than inside a studio. Broadcast also relies heavily on bites that it either has or it doesn’t. Since broadcast journalists seldom ever quote (other than running bites), making them up would be a meaningless exercise.

There are still plenty of potential failings available. Getting the bites right doesn’t prevent them from being taken out of context. And editing one part of a bite to another could well change the meaning of what someone said.

Where broadcasters can and too often do go wrong:

 

• Stations periodically run video that they get from public relations or government sources without identifying the source of the video. A few stations were embarrassingly burned when it turned out that they ran PR-supplied video complete with a PR-supplied “reporter”—again, without identifying the source of the video.

• At least one station has run what looked like a news interview program without identifying that the people interviewed had paid to be on the program. The station justified the practice by arguing that active newspeople didn’t produce or host the show. A more relevant question is what the audience thought.

• Electronic altering of images is now so easy that it’s not hard for the unscrupulous or thoughtless to change backgrounds, signs or other visual elements. Of course, this is also a danger in print.

 

There are probably two bigger threats to journalistic credibility and integrity. Not unique to broadcast, to be sure, but problematic.

 

1. Advertiser influence. Is a station willing to take on an advertiser if that advertiser has done something wrong? Think about how often you’ve seen news reports—print or broadcast—critical of a local car dealer. Hardly ever.

2. Sensationalizing and the consequent cheapening of the news. It’s probably worse in promos and teases than the news stories themselves, but that’s not a distinction the audience is going to make or care about. Every time journalists say a word, every time a picture airs, media credibility is on the line. It’s infinitely easier to damage a reputation than regain one.

 

A useful guideline: If you wouldn’t tell the audience everything you did to gather and report the story, then don’t do it.

Advocacy journalism (like that practiced by Michael Moore in Sicko and Capitalism: A Love Story) has its place and a long history in this country. But it’s not what we do day in day out. If the news audience can determine where a reporter stands politically, that’s a damaging failure.

While charges of bias get more attention, journalism is probably more at risk from the sheer volume of mistakes made every day. Talk to people who have been touched by journalists, and they’ll complain about how a reporter confused dates, misspelled the name of the street or town or people, misstated the number of something, the list goes on and on. Death by a thousand cuts. There will always be issues of interpretation or emphasis. Someone may feel that a journalist didn’t emphasize a particular point enough or left a subtle misimpression. That’s a different and debatable issue. Not open to interpretation or debate is getting the facts right.

Journalism is neither rocket science nor brain surgery, but everyone needs to remember that people’s lives, livelihoods and reputations are at stake in virtually every story.

Consider this a plea for more care and attention to detail to help preserve your reputation, the reputation of the news outlet you work for and, most importantly, the reputation of the people whose lives you touch.

THE RADIO TELEVISION DIGITAL NEWS ASSOCIATION (RTDNA) CODE OF ETHICS AND PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT*

The Radio Television Digital News Association, wishing to foster the highest professional standards of electronic journalism, promote public understanding of and confidence in electronic journalism, and strengthen principles of journalistic freedom to gather and disseminate information, establishes this Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.

Preamble

Professional electronic journalists should operate as trustees of the public, seek the truth, report it fairly and with integrity and independence, and stand accountable for their actions.

 

PUBLIC TRUST: Professional electronic journalists should recognize that their first obligation is to the public.

 

Professional electronic journalists should:

• Understand that any commitment other than service to the public undermines trust and credibility.

• Recognize that service in the public interest creates an obligation to reflect the diversity of the community and guard against oversimplification of issues or events.

• Provide a full range of information to enable the public to make enlightened decisions.

• Fight to ensure that the public’s business is conducted in public.

 

TRUTH: Professional electronic journalists should pursue truth aggressively and present the news accurately, in context, and as completely as possible.

 

Professional electronic journalists should:

• Continuously seek the truth.

• Resist distortions that obscure the importance of events.

• Clearly disclose the origin of information and label all material provided by outsiders.

 

Professional electronic journalists should not:

• Report anything known to be false.

• Manipulate images or sounds in any way that is misleading.

• Plagiarize.

• Present images or sounds that are reenacted without informing the public.

 

FAIRNESS: Professional electronic journalists should present the news fairly and impartially, placing primary value on significance and relevance.

 

Professional electronic journalists should:

• Treat all subjects of news coverage with respect and dignity, showing particular compassion to victims of crime or tragedy.

• Exercise special care when children are involved in a story and give children greater privacy protection than adults.

• Seek to understand the diversity of their community and inform the public without bias or stereotype.

• Present a diversity of expressions, opinions, and ideas in context.

• Present analytical reporting based on professional perspective, not personal bias.

• Respect the right to a fair trial.

 

INTEGRITY: Professional electronic journalists should present the news with integrity and decency, avoiding real or perceived conflicts of interest, and respect the dignity and intelligence of the audience as well as the subjects of news.

 

Professional electronic journalists should:

• Identify sources whenever possible. Confidential sources should be used only when it is clearly in the public interest to gather or convey important information or when a person providing information might be harmed. Journalists should keep all commitments to protect a confidential source.

• Clearly label opinion and commentary.

• Guard against extended coverage of events or individuals that fails to significantly advance a story, place the event in context, or add to the public knowledge.

• Refrain from contacting participants in violent situations while the situation is in progress.

• Use technological tools with skill and thoughtfulness, avoiding techniques that skew facts, distort reality, or sensationalize events.

• Use surreptitious news-gathering techniques, including hidden cameras or microphones, only if there is no other way to obtain stories of significant public importance and only if the technique is explained to the audience.

• Disseminate the private transmissions of other news organizations only with permission.

 

Professional electronic journalists should not:

• Pay news sources who have a vested interest in a story.

• Accept gifts, favors, or compensation from those who might seek to influence coverage.

• Engage in activities that may compromise their integrity or independence.

 

INDEPENDENCE: Professional electronic journalists should defend the independence of all journalists from those seeking influence or control over news content.

 

Professional electronic journalists should:

• Gather and report news without fear or favor, and vigorously resist undue influence from any outside forces, including advertisers, sources, story subjects, powerful individuals, and special interest groups.

• Resist those who would seek to buy or politically influence news content or who would seek to intimidate those who gather and disseminate the news.

• Determine news content solely through editorial judgment and not as the result of outside influence.

• Resist any self-interest or peer pressure that might erode journalistic duty and service to the public.

• Recognize that sponsorship of the news will not be used in any way to determine, restrict, or manipulate content.

• Refuse to allow the interests of ownership or management to influence news judgment and content inappropriately.

• Defend the rights of the free press for all journalists, recognizing that any professional or government licensing of journalists is a violation of that freedom.

 

ACCOUNTABILITY: Professional electronic journalists should recognize that they are accountable for their actions to the public, the profession, and themselves.

 

Professional electronic journalists should:

• Actively encourage adherence to these standards by all journalists and their employers.

• Respond to public concerns. Investigate complaints and correct errors promptly and with as much prominence as the original report.

• Explain journalistic processes to the public, especially when practices spark questions or controversy.

• Recognize that professional electronic journalists are duty-bound to conduct themselves ethically.

• Refrain from ordering or encouraging courses of action that would force employees to commit an unethical act.

• Carefully listen to employees who raise ethical objections and create environments in which such objections and discussions are encouraged.

• Seek support for and provide opportunities to train employees in ethical decision making.

 

In meeting its responsibility to the profession of electronic journalism, RTDNA has created this code to identify important issues, to serve as a guide for its members, to facilitate self-scrutiny, and to shape future debate.

SUMMARY

Get the facts right, and behave like a responsible and caring human being.

 

*RTDNA Code of Ethics, adopted at RTNDA2000 in Minneapolis, September 14, 2000. Reprinted with permission.