Sentinel Watch September 19, 2011 Issue

The truth behind today’s news headlines

Tony Lobl

William Randolph Hearst once claimed “You can crush a man with journalism.” To the degree this is true, it is incumbent on publishers, editors, and reporters, even today, to live up to the high ethical demands of their profession.

This summer, however, headlines in the United Kingdom brought to light journalistic practices that were shocking to many. “Phone hacking,” police bribery, and the alleged cover-up of these actions led to the demise of a 168-year-old newspaper, the News of the World. Workers lost their jobs, senior police resigned, and executives of the paper’s globally active owners, News Corporation, have appeared before a UK Parliamentary Select Committee to answer questions about the paper’s approach to news gathering. 

More recently, reacting to Norway’s terror murders, The Sun prematurely ran an inflammatory front-page headline about an “ ‘Al-Qaeda’ Massacre” rather than waiting to find out that a local individual, instead of an Islamist group, was responsible. And The Independent had to apologize for a story in which a star reporter falsely alleged that a Saudi Cabinet member had written orders to his security forces to use live rounds on unarmed demonstrators. 

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

In the Christian Science Bible Lesson

A journey to the ‘holy city’