Do not add. Do not deceive.

 

In my time studying journalism, the most talked about topic in each of my different classes has been ethics. 

The book Telling True Stories devotes a section to ethics with passages from a number of different writers.

I have never seen the issues journalists face described so simply and as completely as Roy Peter Clark has in his essay “The Line Between Fact and Fiction.”

“Do not add.  Do not deceive.”

image courtesy of Poynter Online (credit- Bob Croslin)

I really think that most any ethical debate or dilemma can be resolved by following these two principles.  If a journalist has created a tone to a story that is meant to deceive the reader, if photos are altered in a way that is meant to deceive the viewer, or if any quotes or facts are added, it is wrong.

I think that journalist should always keep Clark’s words in the back of their minds while working on a story.

I don’t think Debra Dickerson’s essay “Ethics in Personal Writing” belongs in a section of Telling True Stories devoted to ethics.

Dickerson tells a writes about a story she wrote about her own nephew who had been shot.  She ended her story about her nephew’s shooting with a terribly personal few sentences.

“Alone, lying in the road bleeding and paralyzed but hideously conscious, Johnny had lain helpless as he watched his would-be murderer come to stand over him and offer this prophecy: “Betch’ou won’t be doin’ nomo’ wavin’, motha’ fucker.” 
Fuck you, asshole. He’s fine from the waist up. You just can’t do 
anything right, can you?”

I don’t agree with what Dickerson did.  I think that she was being exploitive of her nephew.  It is a story that deserves to be told by an impartial writer.  And it was a terrible tragedy.  Certainly a journalist who is not personally connected to the victim could still show the reader what a sad act of violence this was. 

What Dickerson did was make the story about her.  She put her personal feelings in it in a way that overshadows the story itself.  The reader is forced to react to how she feels, not decide how they feel themselves.

Finally one of my favorite passages from the section on ethics in Telling True Stories is the short passage written by Katherine Boo.

Katherine Boo writes about ethical decisions in choosing who or what to write about.   She writes about colleagues telling her that they can’t walk in certain neighborhoods because they wrote something unflattering about that area.  Boo’s response is that if one can’t face their subjects then they should ask themselves if they really told the truth.

I think this is a great test for a journalist.  I don’t ever want to write something that I am ashamed of and can’t stand in front of someone and own it.