Given that its audience is only about 2.7 million, an awful lot of people missed Friday's final PBS newcast carrying the name "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer." Toward the end, the anchor shared the guidelines for what he called MacNeil/Lehrer journalism, and they're worth sharing with everyone:
-- Do nothing I cannot defend.
-- Cover, write and present every story with the care I would want if the story were about me.
-- Assume there is at least one other side or version to every story.
-- Assume the viewer is as smart and as caring and as good a person as I am. Assume the same about all people on whom I report.
-- Assume personal lives are a private matter until a legitimate turn in the story absolutely mandates otherwise.
-- Carefully separate opinion and analysis from straight news stories, and clearly label everything.
-- Do not use anonymous sources or blind quotes except on rare and monumental occasions. No one should ever be allowed to attack another anonymously.
-- I am not in the entertainment business.
For nearly a half-century, both as individual reporters and as a broadcast team, Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer have left many gifts for their profession. Foremost among them is what this list embodies: a high bar.
-- Do nothing I cannot defend.
-- Cover, write and present every story with the care I would want if the story were about me.
-- Assume there is at least one other side or version to every story.
-- Assume the viewer is as smart and as caring and as good a person as I am. Assume the same about all people on whom I report.
-- Assume personal lives are a private matter until a legitimate turn in the story absolutely mandates otherwise.
-- Carefully separate opinion and analysis from straight news stories, and clearly label everything.
-- Do not use anonymous sources or blind quotes except on rare and monumental occasions. No one should ever be allowed to attack another anonymously.
-- I am not in the entertainment business.
For nearly a half-century, both as individual reporters and as a broadcast team, Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer have left many gifts for their profession. Foremost among them is what this list embodies: a high bar.
No comments:
Post a Comment