Looking back over my past three years here at the University of La Verne, I was contemplating why I made the decision to pursue a degree in Journalism. I remembered that I did it so that I could inform the public, whether on a national or local level, by giving readers a source to find truthful and unbiased information on events.
However, this past year I have seen the field that I plan to work in take a turn for the worse. The media is beginning to be questioned for the ways that it goes about getting the news.
The problem I am talking about is “checkbook journalism.” This is when a news gathering and reporting institution pays money to its sources for stories. This past summer it seemed like the O.J. Simpson trial was the lead story for every local and national news broadcast on a daily basis with many stations exploring every possible angle or avenue that could “break open” the case.
Many of the stations would air the most absurd stories, making viewers question the stations’ standards and ethics.
The “news” is made up of anonymous sources and mystery witnesses who don’t know any more than the viewer.
Throughout my college career I have taken classes that have stressed the importance of media ethics and instilled the proper etiquette to display when working in the media world.
The courses and professors have discussed the use of checkbook journalism and how that has been the practice of the less respected tabloids such as The National Enquirer. But now the school of thought seems to have changed, because one of the most recognizable and respected figures in the news business, the CBS Nightly News, paid for an exclusive interview with Tonya Harding so that she could give her side of the story to the nation.
Things have really changed in the past three years, this past summer hitting an all-time high with stories like John Wayne and Lorena Bobbit, the Michael Jackson scandal and who could forget Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding. These three stories, along with O.J., have been like a cow for the media. They have milked them with everything and anything they could get their hands on. Now, many people involved with these types of stories are refusing to talk unless they are going to get paid for what they know. This has hurt the news organizations that are on the straight and narrow.
This new journalism technique can make journalism students question their prospective profession. Because participating in checkbook journalism is completely against everything that was taught in the classroom and practiced on a university newspaper.
However, change might be around the corner because the California Senate recently passed two bills that will make it illegal for a witness to sell their stories to the media.
The bills were drawn up by two members of the legislature, Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) and Senator Quentin Kopp (I-So. San Francisco), as a way to protect the defendant and maintain an unbiased jury pool to pick from.
This new bill is very sensible because in high profile cases it is difficult for the courts to find juries that have not already heard the key witnesses’ testimony on television. By not allowing these tabloid news shows to go after witnesses, the credibility of key witnesses will remain intact, leaving it up to the jury to determine the credibility of the witness.
Many news agencies felt these bills violate the First Amendment right of the media; this may be true but its the only way I see the media able to regain its respectability once again. Of course the media is a business, but that doesn’t mean that stories need to be bought. With these bills instituted, a news agency won’t have to stoop this low to inform the public and at the same time offer a glimmer of hope for those prospective journalism students across the country.
