When I tell people I’m studying journalism, they have one of two reactions. Their eyes light up and they comment on how this is an incredible time to be in the field, or their eyes narrow and they ask whether I want to work for Fox or MSNBC.
I’m also studying political science and education systems. I’m used to defending my fields from skeptics, but journalism takes a special kind of defense. It is an industry widely known for projects that, to some, inherently defy its values.
In introductory journalism classes, students learn about Nellie Bly’s investigation of a mental institution and ABC’s Food Lion investigation, among others. These stories are a fraction of all the journalism in the history of the United States, much less the world, but they stick with media consumers. Journalism ethicists still debate the merits of lying to tell the truth.
A collaboration with NYU Libraries archives information about undercover reporting. The database stems from research that “argues that much of the valuable journalism since before the U.S. Civil War has emerged from investigations that employed subterfuge to expose wrong.” The editor, Brooke Kroeger, goes on to say some may consider undercover journalism to be unethical, but it “embodies a central tenet of good reporting–to extract significant information or expose hard-to-penetrate institutions or social situations that deserve the public’s attention.”
In an editorial for the Columbia Journalism Review, Greg Marx discussed the ethics of James O’Keefe’s 2010 interference with Senator Mary Landrieu’s phone system. O’Keefe said what he did was no more unethical than the work of an investigative journalist. Marx said that O’Keefe’s actions weren’t exactly journalism, but even if they were, calling something journalism doesn’t make it ethical.
“Overreliance on sting operations and subterfuge can weaken the public’s trust in the media and compromise journalists’ claim to be truth-tellers,” Marx said.
While these examples of undercover reporting are big lies, journalists lie in small ways too. Using pseudonyms or initials in a profile of a victim of domestic violence, for example, is also a lie to tell the truth. These small lies, if you believe there are such things, may result from following an organization’s code of ethics. If an editor and a journalist looked at the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics, they might determine that changing a name better served the “Minimize Harm” tenet and outweighed printing the name to uphold “Seek Truth and Report It.”
In an editorial originally published in the April 1997 RTDNA Communicator, Bob Steele searches for middle ground. He recounts the Food Lion story and discusses the weight of using tools like secret recordings and hidden cameras.
“These tools have extremely sharp edges, and when improperly used they harm innocent people and erode journalistic integrity,” Steele said. “When these tools are overused they become dull, losing their impact.”
This perspective aligns with a pragmatic view of journalism ethics. Journalists should be aware that there isn’t always a clear answer whether what they’re doing is right or wrong, but they do have a responsibility to work through a code of ethics or other framework to justify their decision.
Additionally, journalists should consider the affect their work will have on consumers’ perceptions of the industry. It is vital that consumers trust journalists. They don’t have to trust every reporter or every outlet, but dishonesty from one journalist reflects poorly on them all.