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{{Short description|Publicized controversy about journalistic actions}}
'''Journalistic fraud''' includes practices such as ], fabrication of quotes, facts, or other report details, staging or altering the event being putatively recorded, or anything else that may call the integrity and truthfulness of a piece of ] into question. As their reputations for accuracy and truthfulness are arguably the most important assets of ] outlets, many strictly enforce codes of ] and carefully screen their reports for factual accuracy, publishing corrections even for minor errors soon after a story appears. When a case of journalistic fraud is discovered (especially at a prestigious media outlet), it is widely reported upon.
{{refimprove|date=July 2018}}
{{Journalism sidebar}}
'''Journalism scandals''' are high-profile incidents or acts, whether intentional or accidental, that run contrary to the generally accepted ], or otherwise violate the 'ideal' mission of ]: to report news events and issues accurately and fairly.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Vishwendra |first=Mr Anant Chauhan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UoZCEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Journalism+scandals%22+%22mission+of+journalism%22&pg=PA125 |title=Global Trends in Media and Communications |date=2021-09-11 |publisher=K.K. Publications |language=en}}</ref>


As the investigative and reporting face of the media, ]s are usually required to follow various ]. These may be written and codified, or customary expectations. Typical standards include references to ], avoiding ], demonstrating ], striking an appropriate balance between ] and ], shunning financial or romantic<ref>{{cite news |last1=JOE POMPEO |title="EVERY BONE IN MY BODY WANTS TO DEFEND ALI WATKINS": SEX, PRESS FREEDOM, AND THE COMPLICATED CASE OF A TIMES REPORTER |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/06/sex-press-freedom-and-the-complicated-case-of-a-times-reporter |access-date=6 July 2018 |work=] |date=28 June 2018 |quote=taff members who develop close relationships with people who might figure in coverage they provide, edit, package, or supervise must disclose those relationships to the standards editor, the associate managing editor for news administration, or the deputy editorial page editor. In some cases, no further action may be needed. But in other instances staff members may have to recuse themselves from certain coverage. And in still other cases, assignments may have to be modified or beats changed. In a few instances, a staff member may have to move to a different department—from business and financial news, say, to the culture desk—to avoid the appearance of conflict.}}</ref> ], and choosing ethical means to obtain information. Penalties may vary, but have been known to include re-assignment to other jobs in the same company.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Elahe Izadi |last2=Paul Farhi |title=The New York Times could not verify ISIS claims in its 'Caliphate' podcast. Now it's returning a prestigious award. |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/caliphate-review-new-york-times-rukmini-callimachi-podcast-error/2020/12/18/059eb11a-413f-11eb-8bc0-ae155bee4aff_story.html |access-date=8 January 2021 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=18 December 2020 |quote=Like Callimachi, other Times journalists have been reassigned, rather than fired, when their work or conduct has been called into question. Deputy editorial page editor James Dao was reassigned in the wake of the uproar over publication of Cotton’s op-ed, as was Glenn Thrush, a former Times White House reporter who was taken off the beat in 2017 after allegations of misconduct arose when he was employed by Politico. Ali Watkins, who covered national security for the Times, was given a new assignment in 2018 after she disclosed that she had had a romantic relationship with a Senate Intelligence Committee staffer with access to sensitive intelligence data. }}</ref>
== Cases of journalistic fraud ==


Journalistic scandals are public ]s arising from incidents where in the eyes of some party, these standards were significantly breached. In most journalistic scandals, deliberate or accidental acts take place that run contrary to the generally accepted ], or otherwise violate the 'ideal' mission of ]: to report news events and issues accurately and fairly.
=== Janet Cooke (1980-1981) ===


==Common characteristics==
] was a reporter for the ] during the early ]. In ] her story, "Jimmy's World", about an 8 year old heroin addict, sparked a frenzied 17-day scouring of ] at the behest of then-Mayor ], in search of child addicts: none was found. Nevertheless, the article won a 1981 ] for journalism. Shortly afterward, Cooke confessed that "Jimmy" was a fabrication, claiming that he was a composite of several child addicts, and returned the prize. She also admitted to having padded her resume and resigned from the Post.
Journalistic scandals include: ], ], and ] of information; activities that violate the law, or violate ethical rules; the altering or staging of an event being documented; or making substantial reporting or researching errors with the results leading to ]ous or defamatory statements.


All journalistic scandals have the common factor that they call into question the integrity and truthfulness of ]. These scandals shift public focus and scrutiny onto the media itself.
=== NBC Dateline (1992) ===
Because credibility is journalism's main currency, many news agencies and ] outlets have ] and enforce them, and use several layers of editorial oversight to catch problems before stories are distributed.


However, in some cases, investigations later found that long-established journalistic ] in the newsrooms failed. In some cases, senior editors fail to catch bias, libel, or fabrication inserted into a story by a reporter. In other cases, the checks and balances were omitted in the rush to get an important, 'breaking' news story to press (or on air). Furthermore, in many libel and defamation cases, the publication would have had full support of editorial oversight in case of yellow journalism.
In a November ] segment on its Dateline news program called "Waiting to Explode", ] showed a ] truck exploding after a low-speed side collision with another car. The explosion, though, was actually generated by hidden remote-controlled incendiary devices. GM sued and eventually won a settlement.


==See also==
=== Stephen Glass (1998) ===
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]


==Notes==
] was a reporter and associate editor for ] magazine during the late ]. On May 8, ], ] presented The New Republic with evidence that Glass completely fabricated the story "Hack Heaven", a piece about a 15-year-old computer ] who breaks into a large company's computer system and is then offered a job by the company. After an internal investigation determined that 27 of 41 articles he had written for the magazine contained fabricated material, Glass was fired. His story was dramatized in the ] film, '']''.
{{Reflist}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Journalistic Scandal}}
* ]:
]

]
=== Patricia Smith (1998) ===
]

Shortly after the Glass affair, award-winning reporter Patricia Smith resigned from the ]. Smith, who was a Pulitzer Prize finalist that year, admitted to fabricating quotations.

* ]:
* ]:

=== CNN NewsStand (1998) - ] ===

On the June 7 edition of NewsStand, CNN reported that the US used nerve gas in Laos to kill American defectors during the ]. It retracted this statement on July 2.

* ]:

=== Mike Barnicle (1998) ===

] was a long-time journalist for the ] who was removed from his position at about the same time as colleague Patricia Smith. Barnicle was accused of violating several rules of reporting, but was removed from the Globe when it was discovered he fabricated quotes from parents of a sick child. Source: Boston Globe, October 5, 1998, Op-Ed Page

* ]:
* ]:
* ]:

=== Rigoberta Menchú (1999) ===

In ], ]n activist ] published an account of her country's bloody civil war called ''I, Rigoberta Menchú''. In ], largely on account of this book, she was awarded the ]. Several years later anthropologist ] conducted a series of interviews with Menchú's former acquaintances for a follow-up book. During this time he discovered that her account was largely fabricated. Specifically, Menchú was not self-taught (she received a middle-school education) and the land dispute in which her father was killed was with family members, not the government. No steps have been taken by the Nobel Committee to revoke Menchú's award, though.

* ]:

=== Houston Chronicle (2002) ===

In late 2002 the ] accidentally posted an internal executive memorandum to its website. The memo contained materials that appeared to outline a plan for intentionally slanted reporting that promoted a pending bond ] in the ] metropolitan region. The memorandum was widely circulated and criticized in other Houston print and electronic media outlets, however paper quietly removed it from their website. When questioned about the memo, Chronicle editor Jeff Cohen replied that the memo was a "story pitch" and refused to apologize for it. Other than Cohen's remarks the paper made no comment. (see article on ])

===James Forlong (2003)===

In ] of ] ]'s ] Network carried a report from ] aboard the ] nuclear ] ] purportedly showing a live firing of a cruise missile, at sea in the ], during the Iraq war. The report included scenes of the crew members giving instructions related to the launch of the missile and included a sequence in which a crew member pressed a large red button marked with the word "FIRE" and accompanied by a sequence of a missile breaking the surface of the water and launching into the air. The report was a fabrication, with the crew acting along for the benefit of the cameras. The Sky News team did not accompany the submarine when it left port and the scenes were actually recorded whilst the vessel was docked. The shot of the missile breaking the surface has been obtained from stock footage.

The faked report was revealed because a ] film crew did accompany the vessel to sea. The BBC crew filmed a real cruise missile launch for the BBC TV series ]. The BBC footage showed how, with modern computerised launching systems, a missile is not launched by pressing a red button but is actually launched with a left mouse click. The BBC passed the information onto '']'' newspaper who broke the story on ], ].

James Forlong was suspended from Sky News pending an investigation . In October of 2003, he was found dead by his wife after committing suicide by hanging. In December, Sky News were fined £50,000 by the ] for breaching accuracy regulations.

* ('']'' - December 16, 2003)

=== Jayson Blair (2003) ===

In early May ], '']'' reporter ] resigned after being confronted with evidence of fabricating quotes and details in at least 36 articles. On June 5, 2003, ''Times'' executive editor ] and managing editor Gerald Boyd resigned as a result of this scandal.

=== Jack Kelley (2004) ===
In early 2004, an anonymous letter to editors of '']'' caused an internal investigation of one of its star reporters, ]. The investigation found that Kelley had been fabricating stories or parts of stories since at least ]. Several editors at the paper resigned due to this scandal.

* ('']'' - 4/22/2004)

=== Fake "GI Rape" Photographs (2004) ===

In ] of ], the ] published photographs it alleged were of ] soldiers abusing and raping women in ]. These photographs were commercially-produced pornography that were originally published on a web site named "Sex in War". At the time, other news sources claimed to have already exposed the photographs as fake at least a week before the ] newspaper published them.

=== Dan Rather (2004) ===

During the ], ] was responsible for using ] documents during a report on ]'s Vietnam era service record. Dubbed "]" and "]" by the internet ] community the reason for Rather's choice to stick by the ] after widely being debated as forgeries was investigated. After investigation it is still unknown whether the documents were known or believed to be forged prior to ] running the segment. The aftermath of the independent investigation's report released on ], ] led to the firing of producer of the original story ]; ], executive producer of ''60 Minutes Wednesday'', his top deputy ]; and senior vice president ].

=== Barry Schweid (2005) ===

On ], ], the ] reported that John Bolton, nominee for ambassador of the ] to the ] had said "that the world body had 'gone off track' at times but that he was committed to its mission". This article was filed more than an hour before the beginning of the hearing session at which Mr. Bolton allegedly made these remarks.

=== Barbara Stewart (2005) ===

In the spring of ], the ] ran a story describing the events of a seal hunt near ] that took place on ], ]. The article described the specific number of boats involved in the hunt and graphically described the killing of seals and the protests that accompanied it. The reality is that weather had delayed the hunt, which had not even begun by ], the day the story had been filed, and was rescheduled to start, at the earliest, on ], three days after Ms. Stewart (who had worked for the ] for a decade previous) "described" the events of said hunt. As there was no hunt to describe, the story was obviously fabricated. As of yet, Ms. Stewart has not commented on filing this story describing events that never occurred.

=== Bush administration journalism scandals (2005) ===
* ] - The Bush White House payment of public funds to ] media commentators by several ]s under ] officials to promote various policies of ] ]'s administration. Thousands of ]s were paid to at least three commentators to promote Bush administration policies. This includes ], ], ].
* ] aka James Dale Guckert, a so-called "patsy" for the Bush Administration.

== See also ==
* ]
* ]

== External links ==
* ]:
* ]:
* ]:


]
]
]

Latest revision as of 02:07, 27 August 2024

Publicized controversy about journalistic actions
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Journalism
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News media
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Journalism scandals are high-profile incidents or acts, whether intentional or accidental, that run contrary to the generally accepted ethics and standards of journalism, or otherwise violate the 'ideal' mission of journalism: to report news events and issues accurately and fairly.

As the investigative and reporting face of the media, journalists are usually required to follow various journalistic standards. These may be written and codified, or customary expectations. Typical standards include references to honesty, avoiding journalistic bias, demonstrating responsibility, striking an appropriate balance between privacy and public interest, shunning financial or romantic conflict of interest, and choosing ethical means to obtain information. Penalties may vary, but have been known to include re-assignment to other jobs in the same company.

Journalistic scandals are public scandals arising from incidents where in the eyes of some party, these standards were significantly breached. In most journalistic scandals, deliberate or accidental acts take place that run contrary to the generally accepted ethics and standards of journalism, or otherwise violate the 'ideal' mission of journalism: to report news events and issues accurately and fairly.

Common characteristics

Journalistic scandals include: plagiarism, fabrication, and omission of information; activities that violate the law, or violate ethical rules; the altering or staging of an event being documented; or making substantial reporting or researching errors with the results leading to libelous or defamatory statements.

All journalistic scandals have the common factor that they call into question the integrity and truthfulness of journalism. These scandals shift public focus and scrutiny onto the media itself. Because credibility is journalism's main currency, many news agencies and mass media outlets have strict codes of conduct and enforce them, and use several layers of editorial oversight to catch problems before stories are distributed.

However, in some cases, investigations later found that long-established journalistic checks and balances in the newsrooms failed. In some cases, senior editors fail to catch bias, libel, or fabrication inserted into a story by a reporter. In other cases, the checks and balances were omitted in the rush to get an important, 'breaking' news story to press (or on air). Furthermore, in many libel and defamation cases, the publication would have had full support of editorial oversight in case of yellow journalism.

See also

Notes

  1. Vishwendra, Mr Anant Chauhan (2021-09-11). Global Trends in Media and Communications. K.K. Publications.
  2. JOE POMPEO (28 June 2018). ""EVERY BONE IN MY BODY WANTS TO DEFEND ALI WATKINS": SEX, PRESS FREEDOM, AND THE COMPLICATED CASE OF A TIMES REPORTER". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 6 July 2018. taff members who develop close relationships with people who might figure in coverage they provide, edit, package, or supervise must disclose those relationships to the standards editor, the associate managing editor for news administration, or the deputy editorial page editor. In some cases, no further action may be needed. But in other instances staff members may have to recuse themselves from certain coverage. And in still other cases, assignments may have to be modified or beats changed. In a few instances, a staff member may have to move to a different department—from business and financial news, say, to the culture desk—to avoid the appearance of conflict.
  3. Elahe Izadi; Paul Farhi (18 December 2020). "The New York Times could not verify ISIS claims in its 'Caliphate' podcast. Now it's returning a prestigious award". The Washington Post. Retrieved 8 January 2021. Like Callimachi, other Times journalists have been reassigned, rather than fired, when their work or conduct has been called into question. Deputy editorial page editor James Dao was reassigned in the wake of the uproar over publication of Cotton's op-ed, as was Glenn Thrush, a former Times White House reporter who was taken off the beat in 2017 after allegations of misconduct arose when he was employed by Politico. Ali Watkins, who covered national security for the Times, was given a new assignment in 2018 after she disclosed that she had had a romantic relationship with a Senate Intelligence Committee staffer with access to sensitive intelligence data.
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