improve,” Pew Research Center, Aug. 31, 2020. Online survey of 10,300 US adults Feb. 18-Mar. 2, 2020. Everyone who took part is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel, an online survey panel recruited through national, random sampling.11 11 Ibid.
12 12 Gallup-Knight Foundation, “American views 2020: Trust, media, and democracy.” Random-sample mail survey of 20,046 US adults Nov. 8, 2019-Feb. 16, 2020.
13 13 R.J. Reinhart, “Nurses continue to rate highest in honesty, ethics,” Gallup, Jan. 6, 2020. Telephone survey of 1,205 US adults Dec. 2-15, 2019.
14 14 Roy Peter Clark, “The public bias against the press,” Poynter, Jan. 28, 2008.
15 15 Black, Steele, and Barney, Doing Ethics in Journalism, 17–18.
16 16 William F. Woo, Letters from the Editor: Lessons on Journalism and Life (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2007), 24.
17 17 Kathleen Carroll in a telephone interview with Gene Foreman, Nov. 2, 2007.
18 18 James M. Naughton in a telephone interview with Gene Foreman, Sept. 14, 2007.
19 19 Gallup/Knight Foundation, “American views 2020”.
20 20 Robert J. Haiman, Best Practices for Newspaper Journalists (Arlington, VA: Freedom Forum’s Free Press/Fair Press Project, 2000), 2.
21 21 Mark Jurkowitz, “Anna and the astronaut trigger a week of tabloid news,” Pew Research Center, Feb. 12, 2007;“Anna Nicole Smith – anatomy of a feeding frenzy,” Pew Research Center, Apr. 4, 2007. For its weekly content index, Pew analyzed content from 48 news outlets representing five media sectors: newspapers, network television, cable television, websites, and radio.
22 22 Ibid.
23 23 Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect, 3rd edn. (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2014), 17.
24 24 McBride’s experience is related in Kristen Hare, “Still slip-sliding: Gallup Poll ranks journalists low on honesty, ethics,” Poynter, Dec. 17, 2013.
25 25 Renita Coleman and Lee Wilkins, The Moral Media: How Journalists Reason about Ethics (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2005), 39.
26 26 Leon Nelson Flynt, The Conscience of the Newspaper: A Case Book in the Principles and Problems of Journalism (New York: Appleton, 1925), 7–11.
Point of View
Journalism, Seen From the Other Side
They had already drawn a conclusion and were simply collecting facts to dress it up.
By Jane Shoemaker
The writer, now retired, was a reporter for United Press International; a reporter, foreign correspondent and departmental editor for The Philadelphia Inquirer and managing editor of The Charlotte Observer .
AFTER A QUARTER-CENTURY as a reporter and editor, I became head of communications for a regional brokerage and investment‐banking firm. When I switched to the other side, it was an eye‐opener to see the wide variance in standards and ethics from one reporter to the next.
To my distress, I found that far too many journalists are lazy. The lazy ones did not come to an interview prepared, and their shallow questions reflected that. Lazy reporters accepted whatever we told them, not questioning anything. Trade publications and smaller newspapers were alarmingly willing to take my writing and publish it as fact. My news releases often were printed word for word as news stories by publications short of help and eager to fill space. I could have written self‐serving drivel, and readers would not have had any way to know it.
And it was a great surprise to learn how many reporters, particularly those who consider themselves specialists, came to interviews with an obvious bias. They had already drawn a conclusion and were simply collecting facts to dress it up. A telltale sign was questioning intended to back the interviewee into a corner: “Don’t you agree that …?” “Isn’t it true that …?”
Even worse were those who tried to push their own words onto the unwitting subject. I warned executives to be wary of any reporter who said, “So, what you’re saying is ….” or “In other words, ….” That was a red flag that the reporter was choosing the words he or she wanted to attribute to the subject.
We found that many reporters want stories to be black or white. Good guys or bad guys. Right or wrong. The truth is that most events are in shades of gray and need to be presented in perspective. That was particularly difficult when working with television reporters, who hate anything gray because it takes too much time on the air to explain.
The most challenging situation for us was to continue to work with reporters we knew to be lazy or to have a strong point of view. The best was the opportunity to work with reporters who were prepared, ready to listen, willing to learn, and balanced and fair in their stories. Fortunately, there were plenty of them.
28They had already drawn a conclusion and were simply collecting facts to dress it up.
Case Study: A Stunt Becomes a Good Story, but Backfires on Its Writer
A Journalist’s Trial by Social Media
WHEN ESPN BROUGHT its lighthearted “College GameDay” show to Ames, Iowa, before the Iowa-Iowa State football game on September 14, 2019, a 24-year-old casino security guard decided to join the fun.
With a Sharpie and a piece of poster board, Carson King created a sign to hold up while standing in the crowd. ESPN’s cameras captured his sign asking people to send donations to his Venmo money transfer app so he could replenish his supply of Busch Light.
Over the next two weeks, King’s gag set into motion a cascade of surprises:
People liked his sign, and donations for his beer fund quickly started rolling in.
When the total reached $600, King announced that rather than buying beer, he would donate the money to a local children’s hospital.
The appeal went viral on social media, prompting Anheuser-Busch and Venmo – the brands named on King’s sign – to promise to match whatever King raised.
Donations passed the million-dollar mark, and The Des Moines Register assigned its trending-news reporter, Aaron Calvin, to write a profile of social media’s new hero.
Calvin, perusing King’s social media accounts as part of his research, found two racist jokes King had posted as a 16-year-old. When Calvin interviewed King about the posts, he immediately expressed remorse.
King then called a news conference to apologize publicly for the posts, even though The Register had not yet published its story. Anheuser-Busch cut its ties with King but promised to honor the $350,000 it had pledged to that point.
The Register decided to go ahead and publish the profile Calvin had written about King, essentially a laudatory piece that briefly mentioned the offensive posts near the end.
In angry posts, the social media community
