Updates on ethical decision-making in newsrooms big and small, written by Poynter’s Kelly McBride, Bob Steele and colleagues.
ESPN.com‘s Jemele Hill did a very nice, tight column this week explaining how the lives of professional athletes are connected to the life and death of Trayvon Martin.
Contrast that to ESPN’s bouncing back and forth on whether its… Read more
The rise of Jeremy Lin, the New York Knicks’ Asian-American star, has been one of 2012’s feel-good sports stories. But it’s come with an unwelcome undercurrent: racial references by fans, columnists and TV personalities that have ranged from innocent-but-cringe-worthy to… Read more
As the story of Yale University quarterback Patrick Witt (and his Rhodes scholarship that wasn’t) got more convoluted last week, both The New York Times and the Yale Daily News came under significant criticism — The Times, for… Read more
Until today, media covering allegations of sexual harassment leveled against Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain have universally withheld the identities of the women, who did not voluntarily come forward.
Then today, The Daily, Rupert Murdoch’s iPad publication, revealed the… Read more
The recent flap over Bruce Feldman’s non-suspension for writing a book on behalf of a guy now suing ESPN for libel has been characterized as (a) a Twitter revolution, (b) an ESPN house of cards, (c) Twitterati gone wild.
In… Read more
The Washington Post will reassign some of Peter Perl’s duties, but won’t demote or suspend the assistant managing editor, who knew that Jose Vargas was an undocumented immigrant, but kept it a secret for seven years.
I talked with… Read more
When it comes to deciding how to handle a plagiarism or fabrication case, there are a variety of factors that news organizations might consider.
We don’t have enough data to identify trends in sanctions, but a look at some plagiarism/fabrication… Read more
“We’ll deal with it on a case-by-case basis.”
For many of us that approach was the guiding force on how to handle breaking news in the early years of Web journalism at The Washington Post. It was one way of… Read more
Ellen Weiss’ resignation wasn’t about Juan Williams and it wasn’t about NPR. It was about a news organization trying to keep a star in orbit by bending its standards. And there are plenty of other professional news outlets in similar… Read more
By Jeremy Gilbert and Jan Leach
Journalism values are no doubt changing, but it’s not professionals who are driving these changes.
Last week’s “Next Ethics?” workshop, hosted by Kent State University and The Poynter Institute, explored questions… Read more