The Seven Tenets Of Journalism

The ongoing saga of

Lil’ Charlie Richardson

and

The Seven Tenets Of Journalism

Or

How To Lie To The Public

And get away with it with a little help from your editors.

The Seven Tenets according to Knight Ridder:

  1. Storytelling: Well-written. Well-packaged. Well-edited.
  2. Trust: Reports the news accurately.
  3. Watchdog: Gives the information needed to hold our leaders accountable.
  4. First & Only: Does a better job than any other source in helping readers understand the news.
  5. People Like Me: Understands what’s of special interest and importance to people of the area.
  6. Utility: Provides practical, extremely relevant information.
  7. Ease Of Use: Well-organized. It’s easy to find the information readers need.

These are all well and good. They represent a high and noble goal. Unfortunately the newspaper published in Macon Georgia often fails to live up to these ideals.

A key component is missing from this idyllic view and that is accountability with a clear path for responding to criticism or allegations of error.

To date I have sent requests for corrections to the Managing editor and to the editorial page with no response. Think “Dan I’d Rather not tell the truth” type stonewalling.

The next step is to move the discussion to the parent company.

{Personally I find it a hoot that the “story” ranks higher than the truth.}

Number One Storytelling:

Ol’ Charlie don’t have no trouble with story telling. If he says it ya can bet the farm its a whopper. Well-edited apparently means helping Ol’ Charlie avoid taking credit for his failures. In that case they are doing a fine job.

Number Two Trust:

Now ol Charlie he is in deep poop on this one. But don’t confuse anyone at Knight Rider or the Macon TELL-A-LIE with the truth. As long as it bashes Bush and excuses the liberal anointed ones it must be the TRUTH according to US. Don’t bother asking for a correction they won’t give ya the time of day much less respond.

On this point Jefferson was dead right when he wrote:

“Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle.”

Number Three Watchdog:

Yesiree Ol’ Charlie he watches out for us by tellin us exactly who we need to dislike. Furthermore, he won’t confuse us with anything like FACTS or HONEST reporting. No sir. He will tell us who’s been bad and who’s been good and we should just take him at his word. He don’t need sources or those pesky facts or even anything like the truth. Even more important he will tell us who we should go easy on since they just got in over they head or have some other excuse that warrants that they should face no blame.

Number Four First & Only:

On this one Ol Charlie and The Macon TELL-A-LIE are not alone. They are in very good and illustrious company. Like the New York Times. At least the Times has an Ombudsman with a miniscule sense of truth and has corrected a few of their more egregious errors. {Including the one by Ol’ Charlie that prompted this dissertation}

Number Five People Like Me:

Sorry folks Ol’ Charlie is nothing like me. I take the concept of truth seriously where it is obvious from any basic reading that the Macon Tell-a-lie and Charlie don’t.

Number Six Utility:

Extremely relevant information? Only if you believe like they do and don’t mind being fed lies and other pig swill.

Number Seven Ease of use:

Yep I have to give them some credit. It is good for swatting flies and wrapping fish.

Jefferson suggested in his letter that a good newspaper might be divided into four chapters thusly:

Perhaps an editor might begin a reformation in some such way as this. Divide his paper into 4 chapters, heading the 1st, Truths. 2d, Probabilities. 3d, Possibilities. 4th, Lies. The first chapter would be very short, as it would contain little more than authentic papers, and information from such sources as the editor would be willing to risk his own reputation for their truth. The 2d would contain what, from a mature consideration of all circumstances, his judgment should conclude to be probably true. This, however, should rather contain too little than too much. The 3d & 4th should be professedly for those readers who would rather have lies for their money than the blank paper they would occupy.

I think the majority of American news sources are organized around these concepts but ordered in the reverse with the truth buried so deeply in the muck that few are willing to endure the necessary slogging to excavate it from the morass. To the American media truth is like salt; it is useful for improving the flavor of the dish but it must be used sparingly.