"Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little."
-Tom Stoppard









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  • Standards for digital breaking news coverage You want to get the news online as quickly as possible, but in the opening minutes or hours of covering a breaking story, you are still sorting fact from rumor. Here are some guidelines that might help you to uphold and update ethical standards.
  • Engaging the public and maintaining standards Digital media companies need to host the community conversation. They also need to consider the standards for that conversation and how they can enforce those standards and how they distinguish the community conversation from journalism that is held to higher standards.
  • Digital dilemmas for visual journalism ethics Some guidelines that might help journalists gathering video and audio material to uphold and update ethical standards.
  • Good decisions in tough calls Editors need to make tough calls in handling sensitive stories, particularly in small towns where the editor and her staff are well known to readers and sources. You need to handle these stories with a four-pronged approach.
  • How do you cover victims fairly? One of the toughest decisions journalists face is how to cover victims of crime, disaster and other circumstances that thrust unwilling people into the spotlight at one of the most difficult times of their lives.
  • Ethical (and unethical) decisions have consequences Journalism ethics is not simply some sort of journo-theological musing about right and wrong. Scrupulously ethical behavior is essential to rebuild readers’ trust. Unethical behavior has lots of negative consequences.
  • You Can Quote Me on That Attribution is the difference between research and plagiarism. Attribution gives stories credibility and perspective. It tells readers how we know what we know. It also slows stories down. Effective use of attribution is a matter both of journalism ethics and of strong writing.
  • Aren’t I Entitled to an Opinion and a Life? In our polarized political world, conservatives and liberals alike accuse the media of political bias. How should a community newspaper address political opinion, ideology and activity by its staff in this environment?
  • Online Ethics - Do the Same Rules Apply? Online editions are changing so swiftly that journalists’ attention frequently focuses on issues such as mastering technological tools or learning new writing styles or meeting constant deadlines. Ethical standards deserve attention, too. Do readers on the web deserve or demand the same standards of accuracy, independence and propriety as print readers? Or does online journalism need different standards? As your online edition grows in importance, news staffs need to decide what your standards are and how to apply them.
  • Advance Review – To Show or Not to Show Advance review of copy is an area of wide disagreement. For some editors, it would be a firing offense for a reporter to show a story to a source prior to publication. Other editors want their reporters to show stories to sources before publication, at least in some circumstances. We will examine arguments on both sides of the issue and things to consider if you do show stories to sources, either as a routine or in special cases.
  • Leading an Ethical News Staff A discussion about editors’ role in upholding ethical standards.
  • One Picture Is Worth a Thousand Complaints Photographs connect with readers in an emotional way that stories cannot. Decisions on whether to publish disturbing images should be made after the photograph is shot. Presuming access doesn’t involve improper behavior such as trespassing or crossing police lines, photographers should shoot a variety of pictures in situations that present disturbing images, then participate with their editors in the decisions about which images to publish.
  • When Do Private Matters Become News?Journalists frequently report about matters that most people consider private. We intrude because a news event thrusts a private person into the public eye. We inquire about private matters because we want to show the personal impact of a public issue. These issues present ethical considerations that reporters, photographers and journalists must consider.
  • Our Cheating Culture Recent scandals at newspapers large and small have forced newspapers to apply the same skepticism to some staff members that they do to the institutions they cover. Journalists and newspapers can no longer presume that every journalist understands that you don’t steal and you don’t make things up.
  • “You Didn’t Hear This from Me…” Proper use of confidential sources will protect journalists against the errors of recent scandals and protect news organizations against the use of bogus sources by fraudulent journalists.
  • What’s Fair Game for Public Figures? We have not reached consensus among journalists or among readers about how much the public has a right to know about elected officials, powerful appointed officials and unofficial but still influential public figures. Don’t look for easy rules here, but for some factors to consider in deciding whether and how to pursue stories about the private lives of public officials, whether to publish them and how to play them.
Page last updated:
 April 7, 2008