Accuracy, Accuracy, Accuracy

The 2014 Spugies -- the NJPro Chapter of SPJ's annual awards reception.We try to recognize the best and we always want to hear "how they did it."

 

     The newly updated Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics contains a section "Seek Truth and Report It," as did the original code and all its subsequent permutations.

     That's the bottom line of journalism.

     Kinda funny to see it in writing.

     That's what we do.

     The section goes on "Take responsibility for the accuracy of the work. Verify information before releasing it. Use original sources whenever possible."

     Again. That's what we do.

     But, who, exactly, are "we?"

     We used to know who "we" were. We were reporters. Maybe we no longer wore fedoras and Lenny Briscoe raincoats. Maybe we no longer carried SpeedGraphix and spit on the lenses to clean them with neckties. But, we still had the same mentality.

     Today? Not so much.

     Some reporters call themselves "journalists." That's a pretty high-falutin' term for some of us. I refer to myself as an "old newspaper lady."
 
     But, although we are not professionals in the sense of being licensed by the state (icky thought), we are professionals in the sense we adhere to standards of conduct. At least we need to.

     And, the first standard is accuracy. Seek Truth and Report It.

     What many of us worry about today is all the people writing stuff and pretending to be professionals who wouldn't know professional journalism if it spun around three times and kicked them in the tush.  They don't write like professionals and they don't behave like professionals.

     In the days when news had to be printed, it was harder to pose as a reporter. Now, when anybody can post on the web, anyone can write pretty-much anything and post it for who-knows-how-many people to see.

     Those actions are dangerous to those of us who are responsible because it damages our credibility. And that's all we have.

     If we lose our credibility, we have nothing. And the public loses because they don't know what they can believe.

     This is why we hope our ethics will be shared by everyone who reports the news.

      We hope, but we aren't always optimistic.