PressEthic

A friend of mine is going through a difficult time at his job. He is expected to provide results at a speed competitive with that of his coworkers and that of competing establishments.

He can do that. When he does, though, he makes mistakes. Serious ones. If he makes another mistake like the ones he has in the past few weeks, he will be fired.

I made the suggestion that has come up in my classes lately: slow down. Double-check. Risk being a bit slower in order to make your accuracy the best it can possibly be.

It seems that's a problem, too. He tried doing that, and his coworkers and supervisors lost patience. He was not providing results fast enough. Customers were getting impatient.

My friend is not a journalist. He is a bank teller. But his dilemma is one we all have to face, and it is both ethical and practical:

How can we work fast enough to compete with other publications and satisfy the reading public, and still work slowly enough to get every fact from every side of the story and put them together in the most accurate, balanced way possible?

My friend is hunting for work outside the banking industry, so he can move on before he gets fired, just in case. I won't suggest we get out of journalism: the dream is too big and the tuition too high.

But how can we balance the ethics of bringing a fair and accurate story to the public with the practical responsibility of bringing a fresh, competitive story to that same public?

It's clear to me that the happy mean is the answer. But I don't know where that is yet.