Controversial Political Opinions

[Eric the Green]

(07-15-2022, 09:56 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: The idea of free speech assumes that people speak responsibly. We used to have journalistic standards and we now have Alex Jones, who has been linked to appeals to get people to storm the Capitol.

Some of the obvious standards were:

1. Get two independent sources (unless official sources, as with public records such as criminal convictions and semi-public records such as death notices).
2. Do not make oneself part of the news story. The most that a journalist can be is an eyewitness, and that is as an accident.
3. Do not buy stories with "checkbook journalism'. (The National Enquirer does that by bribing stories from such people as domestic servants, delivery people, and lodging staff when such can tell a lurid story about a celebrity. If you are wise, then you don't recognize such as news).
4. Do not get involved personally in partisan politics or commercial activities that will create bias and destroy your objectivity.
5. Never fabricate or plagiarize news.
6. Avoid cranks, extremists, crooks, lunatics, idiots, cults, and quacks as sources.
7. Stay separate from the advertising department.
8. Get the story out quickly, without analysis. You are a reporter and not a preacher or philosopher.

Here is one version of the media bias chart that shows which journalism sources adhere to these standards and which do not.