Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Ethical conflict?
posted at 9:06 AM |
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There was an article in yesterday's NY Times about Greta Van Susteren and Sarah Palin and their husbands. Its point is that the two families have had personal and business interactions while Van Susteren was reporting on the Palins. It poses the question as to whether, when news reporters and news subjects become entwined, in whatever way(s), there may be a huge, dangerous and ominous cavern that sucks down reliable and objective news reporting.
It does seem self-evident that objective reporting is impossible when investigator and investigatee are friends or associates. Of course, 24-hours-around-the-clock coverage demands constant verbiage, which doesn't help.
My personal favorite is Alan Greenspan and his wife (i.e., the woman with whom he presumably shares a bed as well as breakfast and dinner and all manner of casual conversation and intimacy). Andrea Mitchell, premiere NBC news reporter, was his close friend and then his wife for years, all the while he held the country's chief financial post. She wrote hundreds of pieces on politics and the economy and one wonders how any of them could possibly have been neutral or objective. Even more, one wonders why it was never a cause for alarm and the subject of loudly-voiced concerns.
It does seem self-evident that objective reporting is impossible when investigator and investigatee are friends or associates. Of course, 24-hours-around-the-clock coverage demands constant verbiage, which doesn't help.
My personal favorite is Alan Greenspan and his wife (i.e., the woman with whom he presumably shares a bed as well as breakfast and dinner and all manner of casual conversation and intimacy). Andrea Mitchell, premiere NBC news reporter, was his close friend and then his wife for years, all the while he held the country's chief financial post. She wrote hundreds of pieces on politics and the economy and one wonders how any of them could possibly have been neutral or objective. Even more, one wonders why it was never a cause for alarm and the subject of loudly-voiced concerns.
Labels: news, people of note, questions
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