OK, I've been saying that the "press is the immune system of democracy" for a coupla years now.
A lot of this is motivated by conversations with people in media; they'd like to restore trustworthy behavior to news media, not in just a few pockets of it. I remind 'em that I'm not in the business, but I can help, maybe just a little.
Well, the Poynter Institute is a really big deal regarding trustworthy journalism, and they'll be running a conference on journalistic ethics in NYC this Autumn -- on October 23rd. I figure this is a big issue, and I'll do what I can to make it really big, beyond merely funding it.
So, I'll be posting some of the big issues in journalistic trust and ethics suggested in years of talking with people in the business, using hashtag #PoynterJournoEthics.
For example, I've wondered what's the deal when you can see that a reporter knows when he's being lied to, but says that he has to "leave it there" and throw it back to the anchor. That reinforces the lie, not so good. One of the country's most trustworthy journalists, Jon Stewart, calls it the "CNN leaves it there problem," and speaks way smarter about it than me.
more to come...