Freedom of speech tells us the government shouldn't restrict the journalist. But should anything restrict the journalist? Should the duty to inform be limited by the duty not to betray national security, not to injure the innocent, not to corrupt the jury pool, and similar considerations? How do we draw the line? John and Ken welcome Dale Jacquette from Pennsylvania State University to delve into the ethics of journalistic practice.
John kicks the conversation off by asking what role journalists ought to play in society. Guest Dale Jacquette replies that journalists are obligated to provide relevant truth telling in the public’s interest. A journalist, then, is just anyone who tries to find the facts and report them to an interested public.
约翰质疑这个定义，他想知道是否所有相关的真相都应该被报道，而不考虑社会后果。例如，在弗吉尼亚理工大学枪击案发生后，美国全国广播公司(NBC)播放了凶手送到电视台的录像。通过播放这段视频，NBC报道了案件的相关事实，但他们也可能为模仿杀手创造了动机。杰奎特认为，公众有责任通过公开反对不适当的报道来规范新闻报道。肯不喜欢用这种市场化的方式来规范记者，因为市场是不可靠和不完善的。杰奎特对此表示同意，并得出结论说，我们还需要对记者进行更好的教育，并通过联邦法规保护我们不受新闻业渎职行为的伤害。在杰奎特看来，理想情况下，记者应该自律，但实际上，除了市场压力，我们还需要更好的教育和立法来保证新闻报道的质量。
Ken is still unimpressed by Jacquette’s the market approach because many of the ethical problems plaguing journalism today are rooted in the fact that all the major news networks are owned by huge corporations. Jacquette concedes that corporate ownership can create motive conflicts in the news room. Ken expands on his point, arguing that because corporate news networks are in constant competition for viewers, networks pressure their journalists to lure viewers in with sensationalist stories instead of investing in quality journalism. Jacquette disagrees, he believes that news networks can still work for the public’s interest even with corporate ownership. The ethical challenge journalists face in a corporate environment is drawing a clean line between editorializing and simply reporting the facts.
接下来，John、Ken和Jacquette转向了博客的话题。Jacquette将博客描述为一个蛮荒的西部，一个“买家当心”的新闻领域，在这个意义上，区分可靠的博客信息和不可靠的博客信息比转向一个主要的新闻网络获取事实要困难得多。肯不同意这种观点，他认为博客比企业新闻来源更好，因为企业新闻在假装呈现简单事实的同时进行社论。另一方面，博客公开发表评论，因此博客是比网络更诚实的新闻来源。戴尔同意了，但他指出，博客作者几乎所有的信息都来自主要的新闻网络。约翰调和了这两种观点，尽管博客们的信息大多来自企业，但比起企业记者，博客们可以自由地用这些信息得出更激进的结论。
Dale agrees with John’s assessment, but he still feels ambivalent about corporations owning media outlets. He reiterates his point that it is the public’s responsibility to demand better journalism from corporate networks. Ken worries that most people demand poor quality, sensationalist news and Jacquette admits that ‘the people’ often demand entertainment more often than they demand great journalism.
At the end of the conversation, John is left a bit underwhelmed. Journalists ought to challenge the elite, which means challenging both the government and major corporations. But whether they work for a major news network or for PBS journalists’ salaries are dependent on corporations or the government’s public media budget. Ken agrees that the situation is a little depressing. But on a more optimistic note, John does feel less skeptical about bloggers and their ability to challenge the status quo.
