News organizations have the right – the responsibility even – to discipline or fire reporters who violate professional ethical standards. But NPR reacted too hastily and too drastically when it fired news analyst Juan Williams for comments he made about Muslims. There is no easy yardstick for determining when reporters deserve to be fired for…
The surreptitious recording of conversations by a reporter – a tricky legal and ethical issue – is the latest charge that prosecutors have raised about the tactics used by David Protess’ students at the Medill Innocence Project. State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez maintained in a written statement that the secret recording raised “serious legal and ethical questions about the methods that the professor and his students employed during their investigation.” The Innocence Project’s investigation concluded that Anthony McKinney was innocent of the 1978 murder of a security guard in Harvey, Ill. The Innocence Project has been influential in freeing 11 people from death row in Illinois.
If you were following the coverage of the 2010 congressional election, you probably got the idea that Republicans greatly outspent Democrats, that campaign money had a lot to do with the Republican landslide and that a January decision of the U.S. Supreme Court – Citizens United – opened the floodgate to the huge, secret corporate contributions. That was the refrain of innumerable press reports in the mainstream media, such as NPR. But parts of that picture are misleading, exaggerated or, at least, unprovable based on current campaign finance data.
News organizations have the right – the responsibility even – to discipline or fire reporters who violate professional ethical standards. But NPR reacted too hastily and too drastically when it fired news analyst Juan Williams for comments he made about Muslims.
Conventional wisdom is taking hold in the news media and the political arena that the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Citizens United decision has opened the floodgates to big, secret money donations to conservative Republican candidates.