I am not a trained journalist, yet, but I am noticing something that is so distressing, I have to believe it is not anything like best practice.
It’s a terrible time to be in the business of journalism, but it seems to me that it is also a terrifically interesting and perilous time to be a journalist. With all possible credit to those who keep at it, despite shrinking rewards, expanding ridicule and real danger, I have a serious criticism to offer. I see a deep clumsiness in dealing with lies.
Look, I know this is hard. I remember when those most gentle journalists, television news anchors, were required to say “penis” for the first time and it was a painful revelation. Look at us now! We can cuss and say PENIS PENIS PENIS all day with no consequences. The veil of American civility was torn completely away and likewise censorship of forbidden or dirty words became lax and circumstantial. (Not to mention the way political correctness became so variable that it could never claim full correctness). If the news includes body parts, we can name them with no requirement for coyness. We can count on irritating someone at all times.
Big round tables of smart people have discussed the prudence of calling lies what they are. Someone lied on the witness stand or someone lied about their friendship with a billionaire pedophile while someone else lied on their financial disclosure forms. In the news, other words were used: downplayed, distorted, omitted, misstated, invented, falsely claimed. All that polite language avoids stating the plain truth that another person lied.
This is not my chief complaint. As reporters have begun to say “lied” at last, they are still over-reporting the lies in the process of all their routine duties.
Marketing professionals and propaganda artists know that the more you repeat a statement, the more sticky it becomes. Truth has no relationship in this equation. Beat that drum and you create a story, sell that product and rally those troops. The truth is still putting on its sneakers when a lie has circled the Earth, or whatever the saying is.
My prescription is simple. Don’t repeat the lie in reporting on it. If the king says, “The moon is made of green cheese,” you do not report, “The king has said the moon is made of green cheese.” Instead you report: “The king made claims about the composition of the moon. He provided no proof,” or even easier, “The king claimed, against all evidence, that the moon is made of Earth-based material.
You are obligated to tell the truth in your accuracy. Repeating an accurate quote of a lie is not helping anyone understand the truth of the matter.
If we are always going to irritate some of the people, let’s do our best to irritate them with the truth and be willing to stand behind our statements. Liars dither and hide and muddy things. Keep it simple and keep it true.
Unfortunately, I am not in charge of anything to make this a requirement. I would love to know if there’s an ethics entry in some textbook somewhere that covers this. Feel free to educate me!!
The truth matters and how we talk about it matters too.
Love,
yermom
I know I am part of the problem. So much exaggeration needs to be cleaned up in my stories. Finding the funniest viewpoint to view things naturally gives a spin. Maybe don’t encourage me!! Don’t Eat Your Children is available at most retailers for mail order. Try this one: Bookshop.org. If you subscribe to my newsletter or my substack, you will be in the loop for whatever comes next, like paperbacks.
askyermom 
Waddaya think?