PressEthic

Most of the pressures we think about include dealing with editors, making deadlines, and writing an interesting story. These are not minor concerns, but the recent reports out of Iraq make an everyday American journalist’s worries seem downright inconsequential.

The New York Times ran an article this past Thursday about the new iPod Nano. The story, written by David Pogue, ran on the front page of the Business Section. Pogue praises Apple’s latest music player, calling it “a tiny, flat, shiny wafer of powerful sound.”

I do not watch television often. I get most of my news from print mediums and on-line. Hence, watching a nightly news broadcast almost gave me a seizure. Shepard Smith raced from one story to the next without missing a beat. The broadcast covered 29 stories in approximately 42 minutes of airtime. It was like being in the mind of a person who only reads the headlines in the newspaper.

Did we learn anything from the likes of Glass, Kelley, and Blair? Apparently some journalists missed these huge stories and thought they could continue to cut corners and beat the system. A recent story by William March details the investigation of former Tribune journalist Brad Smith.

So what does the media do? It continues to ask the Bush Administration for answers, holding the Office of the President accountable for its choices, right? That’s a good thing. But, in the mean time, I want to know what is actually happening without performing a laborious google search or relying on blatantly biased sources from both the left and the right.