Should bloggers be held to the same code of ethics as professional journalists?

by Tom Brennan

Created on: July 24, 2009   Last Updated: July 25, 2009

Should bloggers be held to the same code of ethics as professional journalists? Is it okay to lie if you're a blogger? Or spread harmful rumors? The blog is a technical innovation of the internet which permits anyone with the access to a computer to publish their ideas, thoughts, and even perversions on a worldwide scale. This is something that even a decade ago was unheard of and unanticipated in a legal and ethical sense. So, are bloggers allowed different rights than professional journalists? The internet has changed the way we write, communicate, and even how we interact with others. Remember "flaming" when e-mail began? How a bout "nettiquette". Texting is rearranging how we spell, form sentences and even how we drive (how many accidents are caused by cell phones, inattentive driving and even texting while in traffic?

Journalism has grown as a necessary and extremely important of our civilization. Freedom of the press was considered vital to the Founders and writers of the Constitution because they knew that government in time would strive to protect itself at almost any cost from its constituents if given the opportunity. This right entails a responsibility as well, the responsibility to be truthful, accurate and accountable. Journalists who violate ethics of their craft will call into question the work of others, and of the whole concept of freedom of the press. This sets up a process of degradation of the concept and the shifting of the scale to that of the preservation of the government's "right to exist" for its own sake. Perhaps this seems an extreme view, but this is where it could go.

The internet has made the entire world an audience for anyone who can manage the software, have a good enough command of language, and the desire to promulgate a view, whether it is true or not. This places a responsibility on the blogger that only a journalist or publisher would have had only a few years ago. Whether or not they like it, they have joined the ranks of journalists and have the same responsibilities. "You will not bear false witness against your neighbor" is one of the Ten Commandments, lying is universally wrong. There are no exceptions. Hiding behind a technical description of "blogging" does not remove the reality of spreading over an international source a false, misleading, inaccurate or derogatory message about someone or something. The internet has placed an even stronger responsibility upon those who choose to employ it in their goal of communicating. Welcome to the world of responsibility and ethics, bloggers.

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