When Journalists Don’t Know What Journalism Is
The army subpoenas a journalist, and the journalist doesn’t like it claiming that it is “unethical” to be complicit in identifying and prosecuting her anonymous source. Of course, the “ethics” of actively trying to protect a soldier who has abandoned the responsibility to this country he legally obligated himself too doesn’t even enter into this twit’s head.
“It’s not a reporter’s job to participate in the prosecution of her own sources,’’ said Sarah Olson, an Oakland freelance journalist and radio producer. “When you force a journalist to participate, you run the risk of turning the journalist into an investigative tool of the state.’‘
But…isn’t it the state’s duty to investigate crimes? And isn’t it a responsible citizen’s duty to assist the state in such investigations by providing factual testimony?
But Olson, who received her subpoena Thursday, acknowledged she has no legal grounds to refuse to testify, since she is being asked only to confirm the accuracy of what she wrote about Watada and not to disclose confidential sources or unpublished material.
Normally, she said, “no one, myself included, has any problem verifying the veracity of their reporting.’’ The ethical problem in this case, she said, is that she would be aiding the prosecution of one of the dissidents and war critics who regularly trust her to tell their stories to the public.
Tell stories to the public? That’s not journalism, that’s political advocacy. Journalists don’t “tell stories.” They’re supposed to dispassionately report facts and events without taking sides.
Sadly, we see too little of that today.
