Posted on 05/07/2011 3:48:11 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
"I don't dispute for a second that happened," Protess, who founded the Medill Innocence Project, said in a recent interview..... "It is a technique we will use infrequently." The behavior is acceptable..."if there is no other way to get the story and there is a higher social purpose, a higher social good."
Questions about journalistic ethics add another layer of controversy for a professor who is both ostracized by his university and lauded in student evaluations... last week more than 30 journalists and professors from around the country came to Protess' defense by asking for an "independent investigation" of the allegations against him.
...Protess and Northwestern initially were on the same side as they fought against turning over class materials subpoenaed by prosecutors, arguing they were protected under a law that shields journalists from revealing unpublished work.
But after questions arose whether or not Protess had been forthcoming about what he turned over to McKinney's lawyers, the university hired a prominent law firm to look into the allegations as well as possible ethical breaches. The university ultimately concluded that Protess lied about what information was shared with McKinney's attorneys. Protess blames a faulty memory and said he altered an email to make it more accurate, calling accusations of misleading the university "entirely disingenuous."
[snip]
"The bottom line is that I don't agree that these were justified deceptions," she [Kelly McBride] said. "It seems to me that there were alternatives in both cases, and the harm is that the public may question all of their work."
Indiana University journalism professor Dave Boeyink said a "journalist's fundamental coin is truth telling" and that the use of deception raises questions about the commitment to the truth.
"The real question for me is whether the deception is a last resort," Boeyink said.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
One of those students, Kendra Marr now works for Politico (comments at link about this controversy).
Another student of Professor Protress, Nomaan Merchant, now works for for AP (declined to comment for article).
Shocked shocked that this is being made public.
Shocked too that PoliticO and AP have unethical people on their staff.
Professional journalism is under assault by these unprofessional activists in journalist clothes.
If the person answering the door asked for ComEd ID and couldn’t produce it, spooking a crime-witness relative into knifing the student, would it have served the “higher good”?
(Actually, I suspect David Protess is such a twisted Lefty that he might even say “Yes!”)
The trouble with this formulation of when surreptitious methods are acceptable is that the determination of what constitutes "information vital to the public" is made by journalists looking at the world through deeply liberal-tinted glasses. Any level of subterfuge and deception would be deemed acceptable to, for example, dig out dirt on Sarah Palin, but most of today's journos would shrink in horror at the thought of using such methods to try to get access to Obama's college records.
Frankly, looking at most of the practicing journos today, I find the term "journalistic ethics" to be an oxymoron.
Uh-Then why don't they practice it?
It’s unethical to lie in an attempt to gain information that would possibly free an innocent prisoner but it is not unethical to lie when reporting news? It’s not unethical to flagrantly support one political party over another?
I think the investigators could find other things to investigate.
What a bunch of absurd posers.
All journalists are liars.
They long ago left any ethics they ever might have had, at the curb when they became card-carrying, full time, message-crafting democrat party propagandists.
Pravda had more ethics than US journalists.
Jim Romenesko’s blog at Poynter online has been keeping up with this. This blog is one of the more comprehensive sites if one is interested in the ‘journalism’ trade.
Medill profs don’t expect Protess to return from his leave
Dr. Boeyink isn't the slimeball subject of the article. He's someone they went to for "another view."
And you're an idiot.
Balogna.
(sp)
Bologna.
If there were ethics in US journalism, those journalists would be screaming from rooftops about the dishonesty in their profession.
I concur.
There are some facts that chop up his point of view.
For example, one of his defenses is that he has a faulty memory. That should clue him into a huge flaw of moral and ethical relativism--that individual determination of "greater good" might be very, very flawed. We have ethical codes, etc., because we can't operate just by each person on his own subjective view of right and wrong.
How about handing out cash to conservative newspapers that were vandalized by leftists...I guess when the SPJ did that, it wasn't good enough for you. How about them running an Ethics hotline for journalists to call? How about their criticism when Ian Murphy of the Buffalo Beast posed as David Koch and recorded the call to Wisconsin governor Scott Walker?
Do I agree with everything the SPJ has done? Of course not...but to imply there aren't good, honest journalists promoting ethical behavior is, well, a position of stupidity, ignorance, dishonesty, or evil (Thomas Eleri's "SIDE").
Tell me, why haven't I heard you screaming anything from the rooftops. Could it be that good journalists face the same obstacles in getting their message out?
I gave up my professional and personal life to foster the creation of honest news outlets. I was the editor of two independent newspapers. I chose the truth over family, the cause over my career.
I admit that if I had it all to do over again, I wouldn't make those sacrifices, but I was younger and idealistic then. And I worked with many other honest men and women, some of the finest I've known. Your comment is an insult to those who are still in the business, but I suppose that if all you have is a blunt instrument and a broad brush, then I shouldn't expect precision in your understanding or commentary.
My apologies.
However US journalism is rotten to its core. Beyond useless.
Fundamentally dishonest, on balance.
Thanks for the link.
The good professor must have REALLY “crossed the line” for Northwestern to can him after 30 years.
As they are ADVOCATES not journalists.
Here's a good site to drive home that point.
SEJ: Society of Environmental Journalists "Your source for environment, energy, science, health, and climate reporting"
I can speak to this with some bit of knowledge to the issue. For two years now, I have been a working reporter covering local government in three parishes (counties). I've gotten to know a dozen or more print reporters and a half dozen tv reporters who cover the same beat.
Out of that group, I would say most try to do a decent job. A few of them are lazy and a couple have agendas. I've never caught any of them in outright lies, but almost always they write or report with a different emphasis than do I, even when covering the same meeting.
But ALL of them have one trait in common: a finely developed sense of what NOT to report. When you're reporting locally and you step on the wrong set of toes, you don't last long.
Which is where I come in. I report what AIN'T in the newspapers or on tv. And there's plenty there to report on.
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