Honest to Goodness

Karen is a young newspaper reporter. As an entry-level journalist, her primary source of competition comes from summer interns who are recruited from undergraduate journalism programs. Karen believes that competition is “good for the soul,” and some of her best work has been produced in response to the competitive atmosphere and her reluctance to be outdone by the interns. However, this competitiveness has a downside: Karen believes that “the cardinal rule of journalism is truth-telling,” yet her desire to provide readers with important information has at times led her to use dishonest means to get stories. For instance, she has misrepresented herself in order to get interviews. She says that “there are times for dishonest tactics” if these tactics are in the service of telling the truth in a story.

“One of the things I learned from the interns that bothered me was seeing how who you know is sometimes a lot more important than what you know. It was hard to see these interns come in and have the editor of our paper be taking them out to lunch when the editor has never even said hello to me. And I hated it. Looking back on this summer, I learned that you’re going to be overlooked sometimes and that you’re not always going to get the recognition that you deserve. At other places I’ve worked, I’ve always been the little young superstar. And there was never anyone else like me there. And now, all of a sudden, to have these people come in and see them sometimes get better stories and working better shifts was really sort of a slap in the face.”

Karen believes that competition can be “good for the soul.” Some of her best work has been produced in response to the competitive atmosphere described above and her reluctance to be outdone by the interns. She began to work longer hours, in the hope that she would be the one present to cover breaking stories (“Most of them work about twelve hours a day, and so I would stay fourteen”). But this competitiveness has a downside. Karen describes herself as honest and believes that “the cardinal rule of journalism is truth-telling.” Yet her strong desire to provide readers with important information and to compete with other staff members compelled her to use questionable tactics to obtain her stories. For example, she misrepresented herself to others in order to get interviews. She did not, however, perceive such behavior as contradictory to her goals of truthful and honest reporting. She argued that it was okay to use dishonest methods to get an honest story. In other words, the end justified the means.

When asked if her goals of honesty and accuracy were shared by her colleagues in journalism, Karen replied:

“Yes, I do think so. Definitely accuracy, because I think it would be tough for people to be drawn to journalism if they weren’t drawn to some sort of sense of accuracy, because it’s such a staple. Honesty is tough because journalism … is such a really—unfortunately—manipulative profession. So I think, in what they print, honesty is very important. But in tactics used to get what they print, I’m not sure that honesty is always so important … There are a lot of times [when] journalists do dishonest things to get honest things.”

As one example, Karen mentioned situations in which journalists used deceptive methods to reveal a county’s “blatant racism.” The journalists wanted to expose exactly how African-Americans were treated differently from whites in certain communities, particularly when it came to buying cars and homes. The journalists presented themselves to car dealerships and real estate offices as potential buyers, rather than as journalists, in order to get firsthand accounts of discriminatory behavior. Karen justified this deception:

“So I think that honesty is definitely—it’s definitely something that I think people are, at heart: honest. But I think that tactics sometimes used are dishonest. I don’t always think that dishonest tactics are used, they are mostly used for good reasons. Those stories, the one on the racism, I mean that was— that served the public good. I applaud what they did in that case … So I definitely think there are times for dishonest tactics. And I can only speak on what I’ve seen, and what I’ve seen in this small amount of print journalism I’ve worked in—I would say that most people do have accuracy and honesty at heart.”

Karen justifies her deception because, as a result, she is able to get the story published. Getting the story serves the public good, and this is where she believes her primary responsibility lies.

Where does Karen believe her responsibility lies? Do Karen’s actions help her meet her responsibility? To whom or to what else might Karen be responsible to? Discuss.