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Researchers examine ethics of journalists
Bakersfield Californian ^ | 5/5/05 | Matt Sedensky - AP

Posted on 05/05/2005 8:57:58 AM PDT by NormsRevenge

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) - Lee Wilkins remembers well the reaction she'd often get when identifying herself as a reporter.

"I had a standard line," said Wilkins, now a journalism professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia. "I would always say back, 'I won't accuse you of all the ills of your profession if you won't accuse me of all the ills of mine.'"

Recent research by Wilkins and Renita Coleman of Louisiana State University may provide some vindication for members of a profession that's taken a beating in recent years with high-profile blunders.

Wilkins and Coleman surveyed journalists for the first time using a decades-old model for assessing one's morals, a test given to more than 30,000 people representing numerous professions.

According to the researchers, journalists are significantly more ethical than the average adult - eclipsed only by seminarians, doctors and medical students.

"We did not really think that journalists would come out as high as they did," said Coleman.

Wilkins and Coleman traveled to newsrooms across the country for two years interviewing a sampling of 249 journalists.

Using a version of the Defining Issues Test, developed in the 1970s at the University of Minnesota, the professors offered participants six ethical dilemmas, each followed by a dozen questions that seek to determine what motivated a journalist's decision.

Journalists had an average score of 48.7 on a 100-point scale, meaning just about half the time, members of the profession make decisions based on the best quality ethical reasoning. That rate was exceeded only by seminarians/philosophers at 65.1, medical students at 50.2 and practicing physicians at 49.2.

Nurses, orthopedic surgeons and members of the Navy are among the groups that trailed journalists. Junior high school students scored lowest, with 20.0, just below prison inmates, with 23.7.

"What we're measuring is an ability to work out what ought to be done when you're in a dilemma," said Mickey Bebeau, executive director of the Center for the Study of Ethical Development at the University of Minnesota.

Wilkins and Coleman said age and education are the primary determinants of moral development.

Among journalists, their study showed no significant difference between broadcasters or their print counterparts, between women and men or between managers and the rank-and-file.

The findings conflict with public perception of journalists.

A Gallup poll of 1,015 people taken in November showed that only 23 percent of the public rated the ethical standards of TV reporters as high or very high. For newspaper reporters, it was 21 percent.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Politics/Elections; US: Missouri
KEYWORDS: ethics; examine; journalists; oxymoron; researchers

1 posted on 05/05/2005 8:57:59 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
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To: NormsRevenge
Researchers examine ethics of journalists

Hope they have a good microscope.

2 posted on 05/05/2005 8:58:31 AM PDT by dirtboy (Drooling moron since 1998...)
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To: NormsRevenge

What ethics???This shouldn't take long.


3 posted on 05/05/2005 8:59:02 AM PDT by housewife101
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To: NormsRevenge
journalists are significantly more ethical than the average adult

BWAAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

4 posted on 05/05/2005 9:02:05 AM PDT by ZGuy
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To: NormsRevenge

"Researchers examine ethics of journalists"

...and found nothing.


5 posted on 05/05/2005 9:04:45 AM PDT by Spok (Everything I know about intolerance I learned from a liberal.)
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To: NormsRevenge

I believe most of them are ethical, really! It doesn't mean they aren't biased, however. It doesn't mean that this bias doesn't find its way into their reporting..


6 posted on 05/05/2005 9:05:44 AM PDT by Paradox ("It is well that war is so terrible, lest we grow too fond of it."- Robert E. Lee)
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To: dirtboy

Journalists: goody-two-shoes with a leftist agenda - except for the goody-two-shoes part.


7 posted on 05/05/2005 9:08:37 AM PDT by Semi Civil Servant
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To: NormsRevenge

8 posted on 05/05/2005 9:12:01 AM PDT by Zacs Mom (Proud wife of a Marine! ... and purveyor of "rampant, unedited dialogue")
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To: NormsRevenge

You mean they might actually have ETHICS?

LOL!!!


9 posted on 05/05/2005 9:12:50 AM PDT by nmh (Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God).)
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To: Semi Civil Servant
Well of course they have ethics! They just don't have the right kind. Their ethics:
  1. Journalism should not only inform, but should also be a tool to mold society.
  2. The Democratic Party has the proper set of ideas.
  3. Republicans are evil

10 posted on 05/05/2005 9:14:01 AM PDT by COBOL2Java (If this isn't the End Times it certainly is a reasonable facsimile...)
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To: NormsRevenge
We would need to see the exact questions/problems to know whether the final paragraph of this article is more bullsh*t from the MSM. After all, someone who is thoroughly biased from home life and schooling at all levels, may consider himself to be "honest" when he sticks to that mindset as a journalist.

There is no way to tell from this article whether the findings amount to a hill of beans, or is merely an example of one biased institution (academia) offering cover for another (the MSM).

Congressman Billybob

Latest column, " 'L.A. Chappaquiddick,' Starring Hillary Clinton."

11 posted on 05/05/2005 9:17:39 AM PDT by Congressman Billybob (Proud to be a FORMER member of the Bar of the US Supreme Court since July, 2004.)
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To: NormsRevenge

Ethics of Journalists is in the same oxy moron class as Ethics of Lawyers.


12 posted on 05/05/2005 9:19:04 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (The MSM has been a WMD, Weapon of Mass Disinformation for the Rats for at least 5 decades.)
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To: NormsRevenge

Anybody seen this "test"? Google it up, and you'll see it's chock full of moral relativism. If that's what we're measuring here, then journalists should have a high score.


13 posted on 05/05/2005 9:21:28 AM PDT by hunter112 (Total victory at home and in the Middle East!)
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To: NormsRevenge

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1346612/posts

Media Warned About Faux News Advocacy Pieces

Media Warned About Faux News Advocacy Pieces
Scrappleface ^ | 2-19-05 | Scott Ott


Posted on 02/19/2005 4:55:32 AM PST by FlyLow


(2005-02-19) -- Just a day after the U.S. comptroller general warned the White House against distributing simulated newscasts that promote administration policies without clearly stating the source, major U.S. media outlets including the New York Times, CNN and CBS News have received a similar advisory.

"Americans have a right to know whether there is an agenda or any bias behind the news reports they read, hear or view," said a spokesman from the FCC. "Just as the White House shouldn't try to accomplish its public relations goals with unattributed faux newscasts, so the editors at the Washington Post and MSNBC cannot hide their political agendas behind a patina of journalistic credibility."

The new warning includes guidelines for flagging so called 'agenda-driven' news to make sources and motivation more transparent to news consumers.

Under the terms of the new protocol, the New York Times, Washington Post and L.A. Times, for example, may continue their traditional 'news' coverage, but all sections of the papers will now be labeled 'Op-Ed.'

Televised news operations, like CNN or CBS, will be in compliance if newscasters simply wink at the camera at least once every 20 seconds during agenda-driven stories.


14 posted on 05/05/2005 9:22:49 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (The MSM has been a WMD, Weapon of Mass Disinformation for the Rats for at least 5 decades.)
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To: NormsRevenge
"What we're measuring is an ability to work out what ought to be done when you're in a dilemma," said Mickey Bebeau, executive director of the Center for the Study of Ethical Development at the University of Minnesota.

According to whose standards? I've argued with various journalists more than once about this very subject. Most of them claim there are no standards, though that's just a cover. They really believe that liberalism is an absolute truth.

The creepiest thing about journalists is their smug assertion that they can make a living out of criticizing others without deserving any criticism in return. If you criticize them they act so violated. I think they suffer from a deity-self-perception disorder or something.

15 posted on 05/05/2005 9:23:56 AM PDT by The Ghost of FReepers Past (Legislatures are so outdated. If you want real political victory, take your issue to court.)
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To: NormsRevenge
So journalists made ethical decisions about half the time or about twice as often as criminals. Wow.

Sorry but I'm unimpressed. That seminarians only made ethical decisions 65% of the time is also not inspiring. What would be interesting is to examine the scores of seminarians according to whether they considered themselves "progressive" or "traditional".
16 posted on 05/05/2005 9:43:44 AM PDT by Gingersnap
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To: housewife101

"journalists are significantly more ethical than the average adult"
Translation: "I don't give a damn what you yokels think. Shut up a accept our word for everything."
This is great. As long as these zipper heads insist upon treating everybody like children, they will continue to loose credibility. This is a very good thing for us!


17 posted on 05/05/2005 10:45:17 AM PDT by jmaroneps37 (Dealing with liberals? Remember: when you wrestle with a pig, you both get dirty and he loves it.)
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To: NormsRevenge
I did a quick check of the morning's headlines and haven't run across, Journalists more honest than everybody else, yet. I think maybe they're waiting for the full impact of yesterday's headlines, Journalists smarter than everybody else. to kick in. That's not to be confused with the previous day's headline, Journalists more important than everybody else. My favorite though, is last month's headline, Journalists more humble than everybody else.

I wonder how we get these erroneous notions that journalists are entirely self-preoccupied and self-serving?

18 posted on 05/05/2005 11:25:24 AM PDT by MikeHu
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To: MikeHu
Maybe they can make a 5-hour PBS documentary on journalists titled They Should Be Gods, starring Bill Moyers as Himself.
19 posted on 05/05/2005 11:40:28 AM PDT by MikeHu
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To: MikeHu

With special guest appearances by The Original "JC" -- Jimmy Carter.

The part of Sleeping Beauty will be played by Journalism's own Helen Thomas. With Alan Colmes as The Handsome Prince.


20 posted on 05/05/2005 12:02:30 PM PDT by MikeHu
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