Is it possible for journalists to present a story completely objectively or will there always be a bias? This group’s presentation discussed the concept of objectivity and citing sources. David Protess and the Inmates was a study done that created a bulls-eye target depicting the various levels of involvement with a certain story or piece of news. The credibility of a source can be evaluated by whether or not the information or result can be replicated exactly by another individual. This assertion is a scientific principle that relates to journalism because the credibility of a news story can be determined by whether or not the same information is found in another news story or the sources report the same information. The phenomena involving the journalist Judith Miller is particularly relevant to this topic because it describes the ethical conflict that can occur when using anonymous sources. In this case, the journalist tried to protect the anonymous source who was Scooter Libby but since the subject matter was of such confidential nature, the anonymous source had to be revealed. The CIA agent Valerie Plain’s security was threatened with the release of this information, even though it was reported by an “anonymous” source initially. I personally believe that this was a judgment call by the journalist for reporting this information but the principle of whether or not to use anonymous sources is a controversial subject based on the ramifications of the information they reveal. (word count: 242)
Links:
Interview by Monica Crowley with Scooter Libby: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXMFwIi3-e8
Editors are in agony over the use of anonymous sources: http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=1596
Fox News, “The Issue of Scooter Libby”: http://video.foxnews.com/v/1139659778001/the-issue-of-scooter-libby/
No comments:
Post a Comment