Oh say what is truth? Tis the fairest gem!

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.