Crusading high school journalists: Students learn that a popular history teacher is fired for misconduct, writes Eli Rosenberg.
The story is deleted from the newspaper website by school leaders. The students created their own website, the Herriman Telegram, and republished the story. Their slogan: “Student run. No censorship.”
European advocates for free speech and press are worried, writes Mathew Ingram.
“France, Germany and the United Kingdom are all either discussing or are already in the process of implementing requirements for social networks to take measures to remove or block online hate speech, harassment and so-called ‘fake news'” considered threats to social order.
America’s First Amendment protects even hateful speech.
Journalists typically avoid reporting vulgar language, but they were tested over how far to go in repeating President Trump’s comments about “shithole countires,” or words to that effect.
Michael M. Grynbaum surveyed media and found they differed, some explicit while others nuanced. In this case, the profane quote was not incidental to the story, it was the story.
The reporting appears to follow the direction of a cultural shift to coarse language.
Observers note that Trump’s remarks follow others that forced journalists to consider their standards, like “pussy.” They also note that Trump is not the only president to use offensive language. President George W. Bush used an expletive to describe a New York Times reporter.
A generation of so ago, words like “hell” or “damn” were not seen in daily newspapers, or heard on radio or television, much less the F-word. These appear fairly commonly now.
President Lyndon Johnson often used colorful language, sometimes off-color. In 1965 Johnson ordered U.S. military intervention in the Dominican Republic, and reportedly said, “Those people couldn’t pour piss out of a boot if they had instructions on the heel!” The disparaging remarks could have upset U.S.-Latin American relations if they had been widely reported.
President Gerald Ford fired his agriculture secretary, Earl Butz, in 1976 for highly offensive remarks quoted in Rolling Stone Magazine about why African-Americans don’t vote Republican.
In the ongoing discussion of what to report or not, retired journalism professor Robert Buckman offers this thought from from Arthur Brisbane, American journalist, editor and author: “A newspaper is a mirror reflecting the public, a mirror more or less defective, but still a mirror.”
Robots can write, but are they ethical?
Paul Chadwick writes about how artificial intelligence could damage public trust in journalism.
“For the time being, (ethics) codes could simply require that when AI is used the journalists turn their minds to whether the process overall has been compatible with fundamental human values,” he writes.
New poll, same results: Public trust in the media is at an all-time low.
Knight-Gallup survey shows Americans can’t name an objective news source.
Half of Americans say more news sources make it harder to be informed.
Concern over “fake news” is high.
Assessing Michael Wolff’s brand of access journalism: Nausicaa Renner and Pete Vernon say Wolff could not have written his book “without the hard work of journalists over the past year; the fire he catalogs was often fueled by stories from mainstream reporters.”
Wolff bluffed his way into the good graces of the Trump administration and produced “a thoroughly readable portrait of the Trump administration’s chaos and lack of preparedness.”
Getting to know reporters builds trust: Pictures and bios of reporters are “trust indicators,” write Alex Curry and Natalie (Talla) Jomini Stroud about a Center for Media Engagement trust project experiment.
News organizations have ways to signal trustworthiness to their audience.
“Sharing why and how a story was written and parting the curtain on the organizational leadership structure are a few of the tested ideas that show promise.”
Reporting on Dreamers: Undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children tell Itzel Guillen, Irving Hernandez and Allyson Duarte how to write about them. They’re not all Mexican; give them a voice.
Avoiding gender-based violence and sex abuse: Dart Center asks leading women journalists to describe their own best practices and personal boundaries.
“Listen to your internal radar,” says Christine Amanpour, CNN correspondent.
Justice Department criminal investigations into sources of journalists are up 800 percent, writes Trevor Timm. Lawsuit aims to show how government is stifling freedom of speech.
Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists 