THE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH!

Writing on the blog AS TIME GOES BY, Saul Friedman quotes: "In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt called these reporters “muckrakers,” but while he criticized them he also said, “I hail as a benefactor...every writer or speaker, every man who, on the platform or in book, magazine or newspaper, with merciless severity makes such attack, provided always that he in turn remembers that that attack is of use only if it is absolutely truthful.”"


In 1906 the world was not full of people in your face on a TV screen who were known to be untruthful yet permitted to go on daily to spew their falsehoods and vicious attacks as though their opinions and lies deserve merit.
The Society of Professional Journalists has a Code of Ethics. To read it in entirety, click here.

Surprising only to some of the professional journalists who seem not to know it exists or choose not to follow it. Ignoring it seems to have few, if any, negative consequences though it has existed since 1909. Some of the major points (and you will recognize those that have been forgotten by those who run the TV news media today, especially) are: 1. Seek truth and report it. 2. Minimize harm. 3. Act independently. 4. Be accountable.

Since Fox News, CNN, MSNBC. seem to be the major network news channels, it is no wonder that most of us who watch them wonder where Hannity, Beck, O'Reilly, and so many others occasionally less flagrant in their abuse of the the code, can face the camera and say the things they say. Understanding that Beck, Limbaugh (though he insists that he is only an entertainer though he is not entertaining but self-propelled in his vitriol spewing) were admires of and mentored by Bob Grant.

Perhaps viewers will weigh some of the faces on news TV against those four points in the code of ethics. If you convince yourself that the person you are watching does not adhere to the code, will you continue support by watching? Glenn Beck took it a bit over the top with his inaccurate and insensitive remarks so that as viewership began to fall and sponsors began to leave, his future on the network began to weaken.
After all, the power is in the viewer ratings and what advertising they can pull in. However, as long as viewers like (or don't realize they are) being lied to, brainwashed, and consciously fed misinformation...those personalities will continue to shine.