by Paul Schingle

Created on: January 04, 2009

Whenever writing about something as nebulous as "ethics," I think it's wise to get a specific definition as to what the term means and how it is applied to the specific question. According to the American Heritage Dictionary (2nd College Edition), "ethics" is defined as "The rules or standards governing the conduct of the members of a profession." From the same dictionary, "journalism" is defined as "The style of writing characteristic in newspapers and magazines, consisiting of the direct presentation of facts or occurences with little attempt at analysis or interpretation." Combining these two definitions, I would say that the code of ethics for jounalists would consist of "...rules of conduct in which journalists have an expectation to present facts with little attempt at interpretation." In addition to written journalism, I would also include electronic media (TV, radio, internet). Given this definition, I would also say the code of ethics for journalists was washed away at least one generation ago, if it ever existed at all.

Journalism is a very competetive field of endeavor. It is not for the feint of heart. There is a need to be first. There is a need to share something groundbreaking. Unfortunately, there seems to be a lack of need for accuracy and for objectivity. A news outlet would seemingly sacrifice accuracy in order to be first. We've seen it a thousand times before. A news outlet wants to be the first to predict the winner of an election or the first to root out corruption, only to find they had less-than-reliable sources and the "facts" reported were less-than-factual. Oh, well. So much for ethics.

I've always said that when I read the paper, the section I put the most trust in is the op/ed pages. Yes, these pieces are written at a slant, but at least they're honest about it. The rest of the paper is usually slanted as well, but tries to pass itself off as "objective." The same can be said for television and radio. We all know that Fox news is nothing more than an electronic mouthpiece for the Republican party. Right-wingers would say the other major news outlets "news" leans to the left (and rightfully so). Talk radio, as a whole is very geared to the right. No, the journalistic code of ethics was tossed out the window long ago, my friends.

About fifteen years ago, when I still lived in Colorado, there was a television reporter there named Wendy Bergen. She was the type of reporter who really sunk her teeth into her work. When doing a piece on

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