Friday, September 28, 2007
Lying to Get the Truth
By Mark Lisheron
American Journalism Review
Published August/September 2007
Excerpt:
Bob Steele sides with the rules, too. In fact, Steele, the Nelson Poynter
Scholar for Journalism Values at the Poynter Institute, wrote the rules 12 years
ago to help reporters decide when it might be all right to lie or to use a
hidden camera to get a story.
Steele read the Harper's piece and wrote a rather open-ended column about
it for the Poynter Web site that gave
Silverstein his say. Two months after writing the column Steele, like Wasserman
and other prominent ethicists in the field, is carefully reviewing the steps
Silverstein took in his newsgathering rather than issuing a blanket
condemnation.
Some, like Mark Feldstein, a former investigative reporter who has written
extensively on journalism ethics as a professor of media and public affairs at
George Washington University, have applauded Silverstein's product while
questioning his methods. Feldstein was impressed by the heft of what Silverstein
presented, an unsettling look at deal-making and political compromising. Still,
Feldstein is disapproving of the misrepresentation and found it unforgivable for
him to withhold the opportunity for some comment from APCO and Cassidy.
Steele has not said whether he thinks Silverstein acted improperly. "I wanted
to leave it open-ended," he says. "I know there are absolutists out there who
say you don't ever use this method to get a story. I've never been absolutist on
deception. The beauty and bane of ethics is that there are exceptions. I'm not
one who believes in universal codes of ethics."
To understand why Steele and others resist the absolutes, walk Silverstein's
Turkmenistan story through the six guidelines or thresholds Steele says a
journalist must satisfy to deceive or to misrepresent. According to Steele, it's
OK to be deceptive only:
• When the information obtained is of profound importance. It must be of
vital public interest, such as revealing great system failure at the top levels,
or it must prevent profound harm to individuals.
Read the entire article...
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