Here are the Ten Commandements of Real Journalism

X.com ^ | 1:26 PM · Apr 29, 2025 | Lara Logan✓ @laralogan

[E. Pluribus Unum]

This is what I am fighting for:

Here are the Ten Commandements of Real Journalism:

1. Journalists are not lawyers in a court of law trying to prove a case or activists campaigning for a cause. Our job is to seek the truth no matter what and follow the facts wherever they lead us regardless of political outcomes or consequences.

2. It is not the role of a journalist to decide what people should think. Our duty is to search for the whole truth and communicate accurately and honestly so the audience or reader can make up their own mind.

3. Thou shalt not mislead, deceive or lie…to yourself or to the public.

4. Question everything. Only the truth stands up to questioning.

5. Two first-hand sources are the holy grail - always better than indirect or single sources.

6. Be as skeptical of those you like and agree with as you are of those you neither like nor trust.

7. Opinion and analysis have a worthy place in journalism but are not fact and should not be presented as such.

8. Never underestimate the audience. People are not dumb - despite what many in the media think and lack of familiarity with a subject should not be confused with stupidity.

9. Be honest with yourself and aware of your own bias. No one is immune.

10. Anonymity has an important place in protecting sources for valid reasons. It should not be used as cover for political, corrupt or nefarious purposes and it is up to us to be the guardians of our craft.

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TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: 10commandments; journalism; standards; urinalists

[Jamestown1630]

Re: number 8 - The media prove to us every day that they believe we are all stupid.

That’s why I don’t pay attention to much of what they spout.

[AndyJackson]

Re Number 7 “Opinion and analysis have a worthy place in journalism.”

Yeah, I suppose, but in a sort of Gresham’s law, the bad opinions and fake facts have driven out the good opinion and analysis. Just look at what has happened to National Review. Used to be the best written analysis and opinions in the universe. Now it is just worthless drivel.

[Paal Gulli]

Lara Logan doesn’t know the difference between an aphorism and a commandment. She doesn’t know an inverted pyramid news story from the Great Pyramid of Cheops.

She’s a former swimsuit model who got her degree in journalism from The University of Nowhere.

She got work in television because of her face, pure and simple.

[magooey]

It is not the role of a journalist to decide what people should think.

Mika Brzezinski disagrees.

"Our job is to control exactly what people think."

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I’d be satisfied if they’d stick with what we learned in High School while putting together the Newspaper and/or the Yearbook:

Who
What
When
Where
Why and
How

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Lara Logan doesn’t know the difference between an aphorism and a commandment. She doesn’t know an inverted pyramid news story from the Great Pyramid of Cheops. She’s a former swimsuit model who got her degree in journalism from The University of Nowhere. She got work in television because of her face, pure and simple.

You're one of those "I can't refute the facts, so I will engage in an ad hominem attack instead" clowns, aren't ya?

[asinclair]

And yet, in the corporate world the "journalists" aren't measured according to these rules. They are measured on what sells papers, ads, or ratings. And the members of the public don't measure the talking heads according to these rules.

Another form of "you get what you pay for."

[imardmd1]

The writer is speaking of a scientist who seeks and publishes truth (by definition); not a journalist whose job is to sell papers.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The writer is speaking of a scientist who seeks and publishes truth (by definition); not a journalist whose job is to sell papers.

The "journalists" of The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, etc. don't appear to be doing a very good job of that since they are all bleeding money.

[butterdezillion]

But she reports what others you might consider more “credentialed” don’t.

I guess opinions depend on priorities. I’ll take truthfulness over snobby credentials every day of the week and twice on Sundays.

[rellic]

“I’d be satisfied if they’d stick with what we learned in High School while putting together the Newspaper and/or the Yearbook:

Who
What
When
Where
Why and
How”

But you have to to it without ANY personal bias.

[Jamestown1630]

I always heard it as ‘The Five Ws’ - Who, What, Where, When and Why.

(But I always had a sort of problem with the ‘Why’, because that often isn’t known.)

[Tzimisce]

Oh yeah?

Well you’re a racist.

[Third Person]

proofreading is left for the editor, not the journalist, as journalists can’t write or spell properly

[Diana in Wisconsin]

In High School our, ‘bias’ wasn’t formed yet. And I had teachers back then that didn’t push their Leftist Agenda - even if they had one.

I know! It was an amazing time in American Education! ;)