Ethics in Journalism – Fabrication and Manipulation
This is Part 4 in a Multi-Part Series Examining Journalistic Ethics.
ALLIANCE – Personal opinions are not acceptable in a proper news story. Too often reporters have nothing to report, or what they find does not sync with that reporter’s beliefs.
Sometimes as a reporter is gathering information, they may find their research and interviews show the facts point away from where the reporter thought. When this happens, some reporters will fabricate “fact” in order to prove what they believe to be the truth.
There are also times when a reporter accurately reports the truth and the facts, but an editor may alter the article in order to make it convey the perspective they wish to portray.
One such example occurred in a college newspaper at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tenn. The article covered the opening of a new building. This new building required the changing of a parking lot from student to faculty.
Everything a new student needed to register moved to one building, thus helping to streamline the registration process. No longer did applicants have to go from one place on campus to another. Financial aid was in one building while the advisors to help the new students were in another building. At this point in time, everything was consolidated into one place.
A new parking garage nearby became the new parking for the students, and the small parking lot in question became parking for the staff working in the registration building.
Students were not happy with this change, although a much greater amount of parking became available to students a three minute walk away with the completion of the garage.
The author of the article explained this in the original copy, but this changed greatly in meaning once it reached the hands of the editor-in-chief.
The editor removed all but the first sentence in one paragraph, and all but the last sentence in the next paragraph. The editor then compressed these two sentences into a single paragraph, which changed the meaning of the article entirely.
Now, the article did not mention the new registration building or the new parking garage. Instead, it made the two paragraphs – one of which was a paraphrase from the university president’s presentation on the new buildings – sound as if the school’s simple taking of the parking lot would “streamline the process.”
In doing so, the editor changed the article from being something based on facts and made it all about the parking lot. It may not come as any surprise, but the editor-in-chief of the paper was against the building of the parking garage. This editor attempted to anger other students over the issue by manipulating a reporter’s article.
This manipulative editing destroyed the meaning of the article and injured the reporter’s relationship with school administration, which was quite positive until the release of the article.
This editor wanted to send the message she wished to spread despite what damage it caused to a reporter’s credibility, the paper’s credibility and the angered students who otherwise would have understood the issue.
This kind of fabrication and manipulation can cause much undue damage and hardship, and is not acceptable in the world of honest journalism.
Journalistic Ethics Series Article 1 of 11 – Personal Opinion
Journalistic Ethics Series Article 2 of 11 – Statistics and Numbers
Journalistic Ethics Series Article 3 of 11 – Political Affiliation
Journalistic Ethics Series Article 5 of 11 – Attribution and Plagiarism
Journalistic Ethics Series Article 6 of 11 – Self Censorship
Journalistic Ethics Series Article 8 of 11 – Use of First Person