I’m self-taught but I consider myself a professional journalist. I do try not to have a chip on my shoulder about being small, independent and self-taught. But, perhaps because of those things, I am particularly zealous about matters of professional quality, standards and ethics among journalists.
There’s another, less self-involved reason for my zeal: I love journalism. I have the highest esteem for the purpose and the principles of the Fourth Estate.
So, when I see a high-profile representative of our profession making the rest of us look bad, I have to ask …
At what point do associations of professional journalists like the SPJ or the ONA stand up and say that an individual does not meet the standards of our profession and, therefore, they are not a journalist?
I got to thinking about this when I came across this. This isn’t about a mistake or erroneous fact in a newscast. That happens sometimes, and there are professional practices and procedures in the field that we use to correct those factual errors.
But journalists don’t get to just make stuff up.
The flap over Korans down toilets, and Dan Rather’s National Guard-gate were discussed exhaustively, but I almost never hear anybody in the profession taking O’Reilly to task for his very sloppy (to put it generously) work.
Given the size of his audience, I think he is doing more to discredit the professional than almost any score of others making honest mistakes.
Why are we silent? Or are we? Maybe I’m traveling in the wrong crowds.
Maybe we’ve decided that, with the advent of “citizen journalism,” professional standards are no longer relevant.
Maybe journalism has been re-defined as something that doesn’t necessarily involve getting your facts straight, and I just hadn’t heard about it.
I don’t know. You tell me.