in the 21st Century
1. Journalists must do everything in their power to inform, never baring false witness.
Reporters exist to inform the news consumer, without bias, ommission, or serving to confuse or misinform.2. Real reporters attribute!
"Some people say," "It's been said," and "Rumor has it," should never cross a journalist's lips or keyboard.3. There are NOT two sides to every story.
Putting opposing pundits on the air and letting them say anything without verifying or challenging their talking points is not reporting. Having the CEOs of McDonald's and Burger King yell at each other might be entertaining, but it will not tell your viewers everything they need to know about the nutritional value of fast food hamburgers.4. Reading blogs on the air is NOT reporting the news.
At best it's killing time. At worst it's using quotes from annonymous nutjobs to exacerbate situations or advance a biased agenda.5. Fox News must cease all operations.
There's no way to misread that sentence.6. TV news can have no more than 20% graphics on the screen at once.
Seriously- I can barely see the anchor. And they never say anything, anyway. I'm watching a piece on genocide in Africa. I don't need to know Hannah Montana's pick for American Idol.7. Newspapers cannot have more graphics than text.
I'm looking at you, Gannett. It's bad enough papers are 60% ads. Write something, for Pete's sake.8. News programs and/or publications are not part of the entertainment division of anything.
News programming is not there to financially carry your network or sell your parent company's products, it's there to properly inform members of a democracy. Don't "synergize" the news.9. News organizations must be properly staffed -and that staff adequately compensated- to properly report the news.
News is not a product that can be produced by a skeleton crew-attended assembly line. Regardless of who owns it, "streamlining" should not apply to the newsroom.10. News content must never be altered or censored by sponsorship, corporate interests or government interference.
There is no excuse for hindering freedom of speech or freedom of the press. Ever. We must stay vigilant against all governments' desire to control information, while realizing that most censorship is selfcensorship -coming from business interests, editor's fears of litigation or the reporters themselves.THESE IMPERATIVES ARE
NOT SUGGESTIONS!
Failure to voluntarily comply will result in enforcement by The Army of Truth.
You don't want that.
Ask Chip Foxx.
