Falling short on covering AIDS and gays: New York Times staffers find the newspaper “had a spotty record of covering the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s — and gay culture in general.”
When covered, those stories were “often buried in the back of the newspaper” and deemed not important enough for the front page.
Making transparency clear: Andrew Seaman explains how “transparency” grew as a recognized concept in journalism.
Journalism was largely opaque until the invention and widespread use of the internet, he writes.
“News organizations can no longer stubbornly refuse to issue corrections or other clarifications without pushback,” he writes. “Journalists and news organizations are — in many ways — completely exposed to the public.”
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation updates standards: Sydney Smith quotes source saying, “Given the extra scrutiny applied to journalism, there’s never been a time when standards in journalism have mattered more.”
Accuracy, fairness, balance and impartiality emphasized.
Guidelines include advice for using social media, new technologies like drones and bots and expand on the importance of respect and transparency.
Are talking heads journalists? Fox News host Sean Hannity defines himself as no journalist, opinion journalist and advocacy journalist, writes Michael Calderone.
Linked with the president’s personal lawyer, Hannity is accused of conflict of interest. Calderone quotes a source saying we can’t “move out of the realm of ethics when we move into the realm of opinion.”
Pulitzer Prize’s future: Meg Dalton writes that since 1917, 84 percent of Pulitzer Prize winners were men and 84 percent were white.
The Pulitzer Prize administrator tells Dalton “there so much going on in our country that speaks to diversity that will drive diversification. But our selection of a more diverse jury pool will impact that as well.”
A Sinclair learning moment: “The controversy surrounding Sinclair is about more than partisanship, media consolidation and government oversight,” writes Pete Vernon.
“It’s about the very manner in which the American public understands where their news comes from and how it’s made.” Sinclair is perfectly capable of doing good news, a source tells Vernon. “But if consumers see things that offend them, they need to show it,” says the source.
Right to be forgotten: Chava Gourarie writes about two British men who sued to keep their past crimes out of Google search results.
“As the first case to test the ‘right to be forgotten’ in England’s High Court, its outcome will likely set some ground rules in the roiling debate between personal privacy and freedom of expression on the internet,” she writes.
Retracting a suicide: Son found dead with a noose around his neck. Coroner rules it a suicide and the Toledo Blade reports it that way. The mother objects, the coroner changes the ruling and the mother wants the Blade to delete the suicide report from its online archives.
“But nobody can change old printed copies of any newspaper — and to be honest, online newspapers need to reflect what was actually published both in electrons and on newsprint,” writes the ombudsman. “The past is not always pretty, nor even accurate.”
Doubt cast on Pulse coverage: Melissa Jeltsen writes that the widow of the man who killed 49 inside a gay nightclub in Orlanda, Florida, was wrongly accused.
“In the wake of the shooting, the media and public focused on certain details, many of which were later determined to be unfounded, and discounted others….,” she writes.
Bias seen in Facebook coverage: Mathew Ingram writes that “at least some of the enthusiasm with which media companies are covering Facebook’s trials and tribulations stems from their resentment over how the company has stolen their readers and advertising revenue.”
Media executives failed to adapt quickly enough to the internet, and then in a desperate attempt to catch up, handed too much of their business to Facebook and Google, he writes.
Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists 