Tag: society of professional journalist code of ethics

Last week, the FāVS News board voted to name me managing editor, responsible for assigning and editing our news report, and also hiring and training additional staff. I had served on the board for more than two years, but now leave to take this position. The fact board members voted unanimously for my appointment is a singular honor and I am grateful.

I do care deeply about truth and accuracy. I am a big fan of justice, but not justice at the cost of truth. There must be measured research and investigation for all the facts, not rumor and supposition. In addition, I know how damaging journalism as a profession can be to people. Just the scope of certain news stories damage people’s lives — especially people being charged with crimes.

Reporters are supposed to find the news, tease out rumor and innuendo to report facts; but too many reporters covering the story are using rumor as the basics of their stories. Too many are using words like “terrible” and “horrifying” in their work. I’m sorry, but: Duh. Of course the story is, they do not need to state the obvious. Following the memorial service at UI, too many reporters leaped onto the innuendo for their stories. One Spokane TV reporter speculating the crowd was uneasy because, “They did not know if the murderer was right next to them.” Talk about irresponsible reporting, that is a prime example. OK, I get it – the information is slow to come out. The police are protecting what information and leads they have. They absolutely do not want to jeopardize this case when it goes to court.