Why is truth important? Is it
important? What are the pros and cons to being one hundred percent
truthful? I feel as though the list of questions about honesty could
go on. However, as explained in the presentation, “journalism's
first obligation is to the truth.” To this I full-heartedly agree
because of the role which journalism plays in society.
When the country was first started the
citizens wanted to ensure that they would have the freedom of press
so that the truth could be publish without fear of consequences. As
a result of the first amendment, men were ensured this freedom and
thereby became the watchdog of Washington ensuring that if things
went awry that the people would know.
While watching things in Washington,
journalists became obligated to give the facts. However, when a
journalist falls from this standard then there are sure to be
problems. An example was this video of a news reporter who
unknowingly reported the murder of his fellow anchor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG4UMxP3HsM
While this was simply a misreading of the script it demonstrates the
importance of giving the truth. If such a falsehood were truly aired
or printed the impact would be extremely detrimental. Such a story
would cause unnecessary anguish from family members and would
horribly damage the news station's credibility.
An example of non-honesty actually
happening was during the shooting of Arizona Republican Gabrielle
Giffords; she was reported dead by NPR. While in their hurry to have
cutting news they forgot to check their sources and pronounced her
dead when in fact she was still in surgery and stable.
http://michellemalkin.com/2011/01/08/horror-arizona-rep-gabrielle-giffords-6-others-murdered-at-tuscon-event/
I remember listening to the reasons behind the false information
being reported the next day and the drastic blow to the credibility
of NPR. Fortunately for them they were willing to admit their
falsehood and recover from this unfortunate report.
However,
this leads to one of the most basic and important things of
journalism - if journalists want to avoid controversy they must
report facts. The world today is so linked and so “small” that
it is essential for journalist to give facts. If these facts are not
given then controversy arises and credibility is lost. I really like
what this man's blog said about the importance of truth.
http://journalistjan.wordpress.com/2010/12/01/the-importance-of-truth-in-journalism/
“There will be an inevitable decline in trust from readers if
journalists cease to do their job and report honest information.”
After all, our
jobs, as journalists, rely upon the public viewing or reading our
stories. If they were to not trust us as journalists then we would
inevitably lose our jobs and our livelyhood. But aside from our
jobs, we have a duty to report the truth to the public in an
unaltered, unbiased form. We must present the FACTS and then allow
the public to make up its mind by itself. “It is always better to
have a factual piece, than one that is fabricated to spark public
interest.” If we will be honest and live by a code of ethics then
we will be fulfilling our duty to the public and to the founders of
this nation who fought to ensure that we could have this freedom of
speech. Let us not abuse what others have given their lives for us
to have.
