Journalistic scandal

Journalism scandals are high-profile incidents or acts, whether intentional or accidental, that run contrary to the generally accepted ethics and standards of journalism, or otherwise violate the 'ideal' mission of journalism: to report news events and issues accurately and fairly.

Journalistic scandal

As the investigative and reporting face of the media, journalists are usually required to follow various journalistic standards. These may be written and codified, or customary expectations. Typical standards include references to honesty, avoiding journalistic bias, demonstrating responsibility, striking an appropriate balance between privacy and public interest, shunning financial conflict of interest, and choosing ethical means to obtain information.

Journalistic scandals are public scandals arising from incidents where in the eyes of some party, these standards were significantly breached. In most journalistic scandals, deliberate or accidental acts take place that run contrary to the generally accepted ethics and standards of journalism, or otherwise violate the 'ideal' mission of journalism: to report news events and issues accurately and fairly.

Common characteristics

Journalistic scandals include: plagiarism, fabrication, and omission of information; activities that violate the law, or violate ethical rules; the altering or staging of an event being documented; or making substantial reporting or researching errors with the results leading to libelous or defamatory statements.

All journalistic scandals have the common factor that they call into question the integrity and truthfulness of journalism. These scandals shift public focus and scrutiny onto the media itself. Because credibility is journalism's main currency, many news agencies and mass media outlets have strict codes of conduct and enforce them, and use several layers of editorial oversight to catch problems before stories are distributed.

However, in some cases, investigations later found that long-established journalistic checks and balances in the newsrooms failed. In some cases, senior editors fail to catch bias, libel, or fabrication inserted into a story by a reporter. In other cases, the checks and balances were omitted in the rush to get an important, 'breaking' news story to press (or on air). Furthermore, in many libel and defamation cases, the publication would have had full support of editorial oversight in case of yellow journalism.

See also

• Accuracy in Media
• Alleged Ouze Merham interview of Ariel Sharon
• Culture of fear
• Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
• Fox News Channel
• Fraud, such as hoaxes and fabrication
• Journalism ethics and standards
• Media Matters For America
• News management
• News propaganda
• Plagiarism
• Propaganda model
• Scandal

• Muhammad al-Durrah controversy
• Jayson Blair, former New York Times journalist
• Rick Bragg
• Janet Cooke, former Washington Post journalist
• Walter Duranty
• Michael Gallagher, former Cincinnati Enquirer journalist
• Michael Gartner, former president of NBC news
• Stephen Glass (reporter), former journalist at The New Republic
• Adnan Hajj photographs controversy
• Johann Hari, columnist for The Independent
• Jack Kelley, former USA Today journalist
• Judith Miller (journalist), former journalist at The New York Times
• Christopher Newton, former Washington, D.C. bureau reporter at Associated Press
• Gerald Posner, former chief investigative reporter at The Daily Beast
• Dan Rather, former CBS Evening News anchor and 60 Minutes contributor
• Patricia Smith, former Boston Globe journalist
• Mike Barnicle, Boston newspaper columnist