Hamilton Nolan has penned an excellent article on Gawker in response to the recent well-reported incident of a TV journalist who made unrevealed political donations. Nolan offers defining guidelines for journalistic ethics. A few of the points he covered are:
Disclosure – Let your readers know where you’re coming from, so they can make informed judgments about how much weight to give to your proclamations and reports.
Reporters vs Pundits – Journalists will always get into trouble while trying to maintain the fiction of impartiality while simultaneously giving their opinions—excuse me, “analyzing”—current events.
Conflicts of Interest – The public does deserve reporters who aren’t hopelessly in the bag on a certain issue due to some inherent conflict.
Check out the article for more about the “new guidelines” that define appropriate behavior for journalists. We are leaving the comments section open on this one for any remarks.
