In The Tank!... Journalistic Ethics?

Journalists should be honest, fair and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information.

This quote directly follows the preamble of the Journalistic Code of Ethics. If you follow news outlets such as MSNBC, The New York Times and others, you might actually have some serious questions as to what exactly some professional journalists are actually engaged in doing. If Journalists wish to be considered professionals, then I would argue that they need to behave in a professional manner. Nothing less should suffice.

For those of you interested, here is the link to the Journalism Code of Ethics. That said, I am chagrined after reading an account of New Gingrich’s appearance on this morning’s The Today Show with NBC’s Ann Curry. Curry, true to form was less than a journalist when she attempted to grill the former speaker about the purported harassment issues that have been brought up anonymously, by the press.

Politico published dozens of pieces in the first five days of the revelations but failed to name the accusers. We as well as Herman Cain have a right to know who his accusers are, in these matters. By protecting these so-called anonymous sources things are definitely beginning to run out of control. Unfortunately for Curry, she was literally run out of the building by a prepared and disappointed Gingrich. If there is any truth to these more than a decade old allegations then they should have been brought forth in a timely and professional manner.

Instead, a blog, Political, with a definite political point-of-view decided to accuse first rather than presenting a case that might actually be tilted toward finding the truth. It seems that when we deal with accusations tilted toward Republicans, the process gets lost in the scramble to assassinate one’s character. Solid news reporting seems to degenerate into something more like the local gossip line. Then candidate Clinton was confronted publicly by 3 women, none of them anonymous, and the mainstream press worked diligently to avoid the issue.

The Clinton campaign conveniently referred to these accusations as nothing more than bimbo eruptions. If journalistic standards were being followed then perhaps the standards needed to be dealt with at that point in time. Now, with only anonymous sources, the purported Cain story is given all of the relevance and standing of a story with proper sources, complete citations and vetting that stands the test of time. Sorry, that is not the case, in terms of what is happening over the past few weeks. The mainstream media is definitely seeing that Mr. Cain is guilty unless proven innocent.