Why critics can’t be players…

In a democracy, the spectacle of journalists spreading unedited propaganda messages for governments or police is not a pretty one.

Such grovelling to authority, even for a perceived public good such as catching a terrorist or saving lives, raises doubts about the independence and credibility of news organizations.

It is the media’s job to report what’s going on in the world the news without becoming an arm of the law or an accomplice of those who flout laws.

You can’t be critic and player at the same time, as the saying goes. The blending of …

The Dilemma of the Unabomber…

It was newspapers themselves who were among last week’s biggest newsmakers. The Post and The New York Times jointly published the eight-page Unabomber manifesto, printing it in The Post. And the debate rumbled afterward: Was publishing the right thing to do?

There was passion on both sides. Many hailed publication as a courageous act. What is the cost of newsprint compared with the cost of a life? asked some. Others called it dangerous and foolhardy. Caving in to terrorists is never a good idea, they said. Now what’s to keep any kook from threatening some …

Ethics and the media

By Richard P. Cunningham
Quill © 1995

Joann Byrd gave The Washington Post what reads like a B-plus in press ethics as she turned over The Post ombudsman job to Geneva Overholser, former prize-winning editor of The Des Moines Register.

Byrd went back to Washington, where she had been editor of the Everett Herald, to teach press ethics at the University of Washington and to pull together many years’ work on a model for ethical decision making in newsrooms.

When Bryd took The Post job three years ago, she set out eight values by which to judge the newspaper’s news …