TV journalism related links
Dec. 6th, 2009 12:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
infrogmationPBS.org: 'I Am Not in the Entertainment Business' and Other Rules of MacNeil/Lehrer Journalism
Quotes:
* Do nothing I cannot defend.
* Cover, write and present every story with the care I would want if the story were about me.
* Assume there is at least one other side or version to every story.
* Assume the viewer is as smart and as caring and as good a person as I am.
* Assume the same about all people on whom I report.
* Assume personal lives are a private matter, until a legitimate turn in the story absolutely mandates otherwise.
* Carefully separate opinion and analysis from straight news stories, and clearly label everything.
* Do not use anonymous sources or blind quotes, except on rare and monumental occasions.
* No one should ever be allowed to attack another anonymously.
* And, finally, I am not in the entertainment business.
Ah. No wonder the PBS newshour doesn't top the ratings.
Also:
YouTube:"Climate Change -- Those hacked e-mails." "Now that the conspiracy theorists have blown off steam, it's time for a more sober analysis of those e-mails and what they mean."
Quotes:
* Do nothing I cannot defend.
* Cover, write and present every story with the care I would want if the story were about me.
* Assume there is at least one other side or version to every story.
* Assume the viewer is as smart and as caring and as good a person as I am.
* Assume the same about all people on whom I report.
* Assume personal lives are a private matter, until a legitimate turn in the story absolutely mandates otherwise.
* Carefully separate opinion and analysis from straight news stories, and clearly label everything.
* Do not use anonymous sources or blind quotes, except on rare and monumental occasions.
* No one should ever be allowed to attack another anonymously.
* And, finally, I am not in the entertainment business.
Ah. No wonder the PBS newshour doesn't top the ratings.
Also:
YouTube:"Climate Change -- Those hacked e-mails." "Now that the conspiracy theorists have blown off steam, it's time for a more sober analysis of those e-mails and what they mean."
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no subject
Date: 2009-12-07 11:50 pm (UTC)The one thing in the MacNeil/Lehrer list that bothers me a little is "assume there is at least one other side..." simply because, all too often, this gets perverted into "there are exactly two sides to every story, once found they must be given equal consideration and respect, and the truth is probably in the middle." Which allows any nutbar in the universe to hijack 50% of the conversation.
That said, they've always been a cut above the rest of American TV news, and that's certainly even more true today.