Article September 28, 1998 Issue

ON PRACTICING INTEGRITY

W. B.

If we think of integrity as a strong, silent kind of quality, Stephen L. Carter invites us to think again. Strong it is, but only if regularly and vigorously exercised. Integrity, then, is like religious freedom: use it or lose it. And if it's lost on a personal level, the fundamental architecture of community is weakened. As more citizens choose to live "an integral life," however, society is progressively strengthened.

A law professor at Yale University, Carter explains in his book Integrity (New York: Basic Books, 1996) that practicing integrity has three essential steps: "... (1) discerning what is right and what is wrong; (2) acting on what you have discerned, even at personal cost; and (3) saying openly that you are acting on your understanding of right from wrong" (p. 7).

On the subject of media ethics, Professor Carter writes: "... journalistic integrity is being harmed by the need to make the facts fit the story rather than making the story fit the facts. All too often, having made up their minds that the story has a certain ending, reporters and editors are disdainful of evidence that the ending is wrong" (p. 85). The solution, he later notes, isn't complicated. It's making the effort to follow the rules taught in journalism schools: "... think about the good and fair and true way to say it, and then say it that way" (p. 88). Or, discern the right, act on it, speak accordingly.

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