Janet Cooke and Stephen Glass. Both are examples taught to young journalists so they can see the perils of publishing artificial stories and manufacturing quotes.
One mistake, one lie, one exaggerated story is enough to lose the respect and trust of the public. This is why here at The Oracle, we take pride in holding ourselves to the highest ethical standards and report content that the entire WS community will trust and enjoy.
Journalism ethics has recently been called into question in the media after NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams exaggerated a story from when he covered the Iraq War in the early 2000s, as well as when prominent Fox News anchor Bill O’Reilly riddled his stories with factual inaccuracies regarding certain wars he reported for the network.
Due to the magnitude of these events in the media, we felt that this is the best time to reaffirm our own values and share with the public the rules we have implemented in our own program to maintain our journalistic rigor.
The WS Journalism Code of Ethics, written especially for this student newspaper staff, lists 20 rules that all Spartan Journalists must follow to keep our publication honest and authentic. When a student journalist does not follow rules explicitly, he or she will be dismissed from the staff; there are no “second chances” at The Oracle
We strictly adhere to these rules because the administration places its trust in us to produce a paper that they do not have to review prior to it being published; the absence of this “prior restraint,” also known as censorship, is what enables us to create content that informs and entertains all Spartans and the community as well.
The importance of journalism ethics is stressed from the first day of class in Journalism 1, when students receive their first copy of the Code of Ethics and through the entirety of their high school career Each year, regardless of the amount of experience students have in the program, they receive another copy to remind them of the rules we are expected to abide by.
As stated in the Code of Ethics, “We serve all of our readers, not just ourselves or a specific group.” Our greatest responsibility is to serve the interests of our readers in the most responsible manner possible.
Breaking any of these rules is inexcusable.
To go down the list, we do not plagiarize; we do our reporting and do not fabricate quotes; we always play fair; we respect our sources; we do not ridicule people and we do not print anything that is irrelevant or inappropriate. These examples are just a few basic rules that we hold dear in order to fulfill our duties as journalists.
We have immense respect for the community that we represent and to those who support our self-sufficient paper by purchasing advertisiing space because they are the reason we get the chance to express our ideas and voice our opinions. We will continue to exhibit exceptional principles to nurture and maintain the relationship built on trust we have with the community.
Our track record is stellar and we are determined to keep it that way. That is our promise to ourselves, to our school and to the community.