It's my conscience and I will exercise it

     Chapter ten outlines that we as journalists “have an obligation to exercise (our) personal conscience.” This is probably one of the issues in the book which shocked me the most. The reason simply being that I felt this simple principle should be common sense.

However, I was surprised to read how difficult exercising conscience may sometimes be. The book explained that there are times when your boss may ask you to tweak a story or take a particular angle which you personally don't feel good about. Thus the question rises: What should I do if and when placed in such a circumstance?

      I feel that in great part this question is no different from being asked to do drugs and deciding when you were a child that you would never touch the stuff. We should have the same commitment to an ethical code that we do to never drink, smoke or partake of other harmful substances. Bill Kurtis said in the book that “each individual reporter has to set his own rules, his own standards, and model his career for himself.” http://alturl.com/9vyxn

      I loved the story about Carol Marin who anchored for WMAQ who decided to resign from her post after the news organization decided to bring on Jerry Springer as a commentator for the end of the news. Marin felt that having Springer on their news would decrease credibility and that “WMAQ was degenerating into sleaze.” Marin decided that the direction of WMAQ differed from what she as a journalist felt was important. Like Marin, there may come a time when we may have to make a similar decision because a particular issue or decision does not coincide with our personal ethics. Marin said in the book that “there are no laws of news . . . it ends up being sort of your own guiding compass that will determine what you do and don't do.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Marin

As journalists begin to exercise their personal conscience it is inevitable that the industry will change for the better. The book indicated that the end goal of exercising conscience is really to create intellectual diversity. In other words “the goal of diversity should be to assemble not only a newsroom that might resemble the community but also one that is as open and honest so that this diversity can function.” I firmly believe that as this happens news will become a force which will truly make a difference in the world. As we as journalists live by our own ethical code we will create change for the better which will help us to make an impact on the world that will not easily be forgotten. http://ethicnet.uta.fi/romania/the_journalists_code_of_ethics