Truth and Journalism

Its funny how people can lie every day about big things or little things. People forgive each other and move on, or they somehow escape being caught in their little white lie. Being a journalist gives you no such luxury. When a journalist lies, they are always caught eventually; and when that day comes is the day they are no longer a credible journalist or source.

While reporting this week, I was at the media day for the BYU Basketball team. Numerous reporters were surrounding Jimmer Fredette and asking question after question. It was brought up that someone had made a Twitter account under his name. When asked if it was true, he laughed and replied with a big NO, and continued to state he didn't think he would be getting one for awhile.

As I watched the news on Fox 13 that night, I saw the story preview on the basketball team that one of the reporters there had put together. The reporter's commercial tease said, "And I'll tell you more about Jimmer's new Twitter account after the break". Curious, I stayed tune to hear just what this reporter had to say, as I had flat out heard Jimmer's answers to the question.

In the reporter's story, he brought up the fact famous names like John Wall and Nelly had Tweeted about Jimmer. And then guess what he did. He preceeded to tell his audience how Jimmer got a Twitter account that same night! And that it was really his! If I hadn't have been present for his interview, I might have trusted this guy. After all, I watch Fox 13 every once and awhile and had always found them to be a credible source. After watching that story air, I will never believe a word of what that reporter says. Ever. It also makes me less likely to watch Fox 13, considering the fact that they let him say that on air and didn't check his facts!

When I went to find the link to the story online, it had been taken down. A shortened version has been left in its place. You can watch that here. My guess is they had one to many people comment on it (I sent an email to them. I was quite angry). You can read down in his story below the clip about the Twitter comments from John Wall. As a watcher of Fox 13, and an upcoming journalist, I am still angry about this. Especially that they took it all down and never made an apology for the inaccuracies.

This brings up the topic of truth and journalism. This personal experience helped me realize the severity of one little white lie to make a story sound good. I never want to watch another story from that reporter again.

What is truth?

I loved the quote from the book that says, "And, as we will see, 'journalistic truth' is more than mere accuracy. Its a sorting out process that takes place between the initial story and the interaction among the public, newsmakers, and journalists...(it) is ultimately what sets journalism apart from all other forms of communication"(Kovach and Rosenstiel, 41)

Journalism in that definition then, is not just about reporting truth, but sorting out the truth and reporting the key points throughout the whole information gathering process. For me, that is the hard part about journalism. I have a hard time deciding what to report and choosing the most important pieces of information. 

Apparently, members of our class aren't the only ones researching this question. I came upon this blog.

He asks the same question, what happened to truth in journalism. It brings up a good point, that people more and more are choosing not to trust media sources. In this day and age its important to be able to be a reliable source. Its a good post. Read it. 

When I looked up the definition for truth it states, " A fact that has been verified". Thats our job. To verify and report facts. 

Most importantly though, I reel back to our class discussion. We couldn't come up with one definition of truth. With our activity, every group had part of the truth, and reported it. But the facts lead up to being unless you had all of the information, you didn't know the real outcome of the situation. I think thats how our world is. Things are constantly changing and being uncovered. We are supposed to report facts as we know them, and as fast and accurately as we can. When we cover a story, we should stick with it until the end so all of the truth is then revealed. 

I liked our class discussion and how not everyone had the same definition of truth and journalism. I think that shows how the world really is, and how it always will be. Thats life. Thats journalism. 

-Kim