From Murrow To MSNBC Dumbing Down Journalistic Ethics

Av Westin, legendary television newsman, presented a two hour seminar on news ethics on Saturday, April 3, 2004 at the Marriott Hotel Centroplex in Orlando, Florida to an audience of area television news professionals. Av talked about maintaining news ethics today in the face of distant ownership, distant legal advice, concentration on the bottom line and concentration on ratings. The goal is news that is fair, accurate and balanced. Double source information. Check facts. He told the story of a girl newly hired as a reporter. She found herself in the station news truck near a drug bust at 10:45 pm. Her boss told her that she was leading the 11:00 pm news with the story. She protested, saying that she didn't know anything. What is the ethical thing to do, Av asked. After some discussion, he suggested that the girl should go on air and tell the facts as she knew them and otherwise say that that she knew nothing further at this time. Many other news ethics examples were given. There was considerable back-and-forth between Av and an audience that was composed of news professionals from WESH-TV, Orlando, WFTV, Orlando, WKMG-TV, Orlando, WTLV, Jacksonville and Bay News 9 in Tampa-St. Petersburg. One student, Jason Bent, attended. Jason is a senior at George Jenkins High School in central Florida and a winner in last year's Student Achievement Awards.