I believe that news and political bloggers should adopt a code of ethics similar to the SPJ code of ethics, or the PRSA code of ethics.
Blogs reach a tremendous audience. A common topic that has been coming up in class is how newspapers are slowly dying out because young people are going to blogs for their main source of news. If people are trusting blogs as being legitimate and credible there is no question that they should follow the same standards as traditional news.
According to Wikipedia, as of December 2007, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 112 million blogs. This is one website alone. The blogging industry is booming as is it’s followers.
Breaking stories have emerged from the blogosphere, rather than the traditional forms of news. In fact, the Television news networks have used stories bloggers have already addressed.
In 2006 remember the Macaca incident? Senator George Allen reffered to an opponent’s camera man as “Macaca”, which is an ethnic slur and then said, “welcome to the real world, welcome to America.” This was a racist remark caught on tape, and became an uproar in the blogosphere. Two weeks later other forms of media began covering it as well because of bloggers interest in it. After this story broke Allen’s reputation was ruined. If breaking stories like this are emerging from blogs, then there is no doubt they should follow a code of ethics.
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If blogging is considered a form of journalism then they should follow a code of ethics. Many newspaper, such as the Seattle Times hire political and news bloggers as they would any other paid position. If the public expects newspapers to follow a code of ethics, then they should expect bloggers to as well.
What it boils down to is what the public wants and deserves. People want to read about news and politics without having to wonder if it’s credible or not. Being able to trust one another is part of what makes a community and what makes our country united. People are already going to blogs for their main source of news – the only thing we have to do is make it easier on everyone so they already know it’s credible.
