Fake News for Big Brother

[Declan McCullagh]

On Tue, Apr 29, 2003 at 10:16:21AM -0700, Tim May wrote:
> Of course, the idea of reputation matters. And--Declan can correct me 
> or clarify things--newspapers and perhaps even reporters have 
> professional organizations and other "standards and practices" type of 
> seals of approval. Something like "This newspaper is a member of the 
> National Assocation for the Advancement of Uncolored Journalism," or 
> somesuch.
> 
> Probably the Weekly World News ("Baby Eats Own Hand, Aliens Suspected") 
> would not be a member in good standing of the NAAUJ.

Right. The ones I'm familiar with are the Society of Professional
Journalists and the Online News Association. They have ethical codes
their members pledge to adhere to. (In fact, this week is SPJ's
national ethics week.)

There's the Freedom Forum in Arlington, which serves a related role,
and of course many publications have ombudsmen and permanent critics
like FAIR and its conservative adversary, whose name I can't remember
right now. Catching news organizations in errors is high sport for the
competing network or cross-town newspaper. Remember the CNN/Time flap
over Operation Tailwind?

Professional organizations folks on this list may be familiar with
(IEEE, ACM) seem to act like unions in many cases: They argue for
protectionist laws, government licensing. Basically creating a cartel
and raising barriers to entry. Fortunately, news organizations haven't
gone in the same direction.

-Declan