Journalism Ethics and Issues (Term Paper Sample)

Name:
Institution:
Course:
Date:
Journalism Ethics and Issues
A.
In this article, Glenn Greenwald and Ben Keller debate on whether or not American journalists should write articles from an objective perspective. Keller proceeds to recommend that journalists should try to use the traditional writing styles, which encourages every journalist to write from an objective and unbiased perspective. This would ensure that facts are presented regarding an issue any prejudice. On the other hand, Greenwald argues that journalists have a strong opinion towards every situation thus; they should be open about expressing it without wavering. This is so because what they wish to express can leak into an article they produce, or can be the mindset that guides them to publish a story. Keller clarifies that writing with a traditional perspective encourages peace with the audience since the author is simply stating the facts rather than writing with an impartial mindset. However, Glenn’s logic seems to be more realistic since most journalists already have a strong opinion about any topic. This is even clear where some of the journalists go ahead to pursue producing certain stories with the sole purpose of supporting their belief.
Great speculation about the future of news has overtime focused on the business model. This means how companies generate revenue to pay the journalists and disseminate the news. However, the contrary opinion of Glenn raises a profound question about what journalism is becoming, about its values and character. This changes the perception we have towards journalism as merely gathering news and tries to raise the fact that every journalist has the right to express their thoughts and ideas on what they gather. This brings about a revolution where journalists can easily write from a highly biased perspective. In any case, trying to get all journalists to write from the objective perspective is impractical. This is because journalism is more about reporting on news and politics where different authors often have their own belief. Moreover, even if journalists are able to produce stories that are unresponsive the quality of the article may suffer and sound emotionless, lack uniqueness, or dull to make it fascinating to the readers. In his last letter, Greenwald makes it clear that journalism is about being honest. Honesty enables an author to write from a genuine authentic perspective without holding any emotional and political viewpoint regarding the issue they are writing.
The thoughts presented by Glenn Greenwald inspires every journalist in the world today to think about airing their own opinion rather that sticking to traditional approaches. The sincerity of journalists makes the quality of the article more passionate and engaging. Therefore, every journalist should consider their intrinsic qualities in writing rather than conveying facts that readers find monotonous and disengaging.
B.(1)
The chair of CBS News, Jeff Fager, made a decision to ask Lara Logan and her producer, Max McClellan to take a leave of absence. This was because of the broadcast, which Lara interviewed a security officer following the Benghazi attack. In every News channel, the executive producer carries the mandate to ensure that what is aired is entirely viable. In this incident, many deceptions got through and directly affected the company. Thus, the management saw the need to make an ideal decision that would ensure that such incidents do not happen in the future. The fact that Lara and the Producer had not verified the viability of information presented by the security officer was entirely wrong. 60 minutes fell short by broadcasting a discredited account of an important story, and did not take the full advantage of reporting abilities that would have prevented it from happening.
There seem to be a lot of pride in CBS News. Every broadcast is working hard to live up to the high standards of the company in excellent reporting. Therefore, finding a replacement was the best option. However, the company should ensure that they have a stipulated guideline through which the company verifies the viability of interviewed persons. Most importantly, emphasis should be directed towards confirming the accountability of every aired story. It is clear that CBS News resources were not efficiently employed in an effort to confirm this account. If the reporter and producer utilized these resources to inside FBI sources, they would have identified the conflicting accounts of the story. The changes that I would recommend for the company is developing a News Standards Panel,...