Mary Mapes: The Journalistic Standard
As Mary Mapes explained herself to Bill O’Reilly last night, I sensed a respect for Jayson Blair I hadn’t felt before.
After the New York Times was shocked-shocked to find one of their own making up stories, Blair was easy to loathe. But as he willingly admitted his fabrications and reasons behind them, Mapes defended herself with what she called The Journalistic Standard.
While I’m certain that Mapes’ politics met with the mainstream media’s minimum standard (e.g., attack conservatives/defend liberals), I reopened my Associated Press Stylebook & Libel Manual to Chapter Six:
If the story is libelous or potentially libelous, if you can’t prove it and its not privileged, don’t (publish) it. If it is already on the wire, KILL IT AT ONCE.Don’t try to fix a possibly libelous story by elimination, correction, sub, or new lead. If there is any unprivileged or unsafe material in the story, the dangerous portion MUST BE KILLED.
Although this standard is clear, Mapes’ defended herself further:
Other journalists in the past went with things they believed but could not prove…
Although true, I suspect that journalists like Jayson Blair, Janet Cooke, Stephen Glass, and Patricia Smith have found other careers.
Sometimes stories are important enough…
I wanted to strangle O’Reilly when he interrupted her: Important enough to do what, Mary?
In the end, she blamed CBS for caving under a conservative blog attack. What Mapes forgets is that most customers don’t like to be lied to. Although accountability to consumers is something new for recklessly arrogant journalists, I assure her and CBS that they have nothing to fear: For unlike leftwing bloggers and the media outlets that inspire them, bloggers like me adhere to a much higher standard. And although Mapes might one day join the blogosphere herself, I doubt I’ll ever link her site to mine. After all, I have standards to maintain.
Cross-posted at ex-Liberal in Hollywood