Honesty and ethics report rates newspaper reporters

TONY DODERO

I got a piece of mail awhile back from a fairly high-ranking

executive I know around town who knows a little bit about the news

business, as he was a former reporter. The mail had a copy of a news

story about a 2004 Gallup survey on those jobs with the most honesty

and ethics.

I’ll give you three guesses where the news media -- or at least

reporters -- rank, and the first two don’t count.

That’s right. We are near the bottom, with 21% of the respondents

believing we have honesty and ethics. These polls always leave me a

little bit more depressed at the end of the day. But there was a

bright light for me.

Nurses topped the list as one of the most honest and ethical

professions.

My mom was a nurse. And since my wife, Beth, also is a nurse, I’m

sure their honesty and ethics must rub off on me just a little bit,

right?

The following is a list of the jobs and the percentage of people

surveyed who thought they were high on the scale of honesty and

ethics:

* Nurses: 79%

* Grade school teachers: 73%

* Druggists, pharmacists: 72%

* Military officers: 72%

* Medical doctors: 67%

* Policemen: 60%

* Clergy: 56%

* Judges: 53%

* Day care providers: 49%

* Bankers: 36%

* Auto mechanics: 26%

* Local officeholders: 26%

* Nursing home operators: 24%

* State officeholders: 24%

* TV reporters: 23%

* Newspaper reporters: 21%

* Business executives: 20%

* Congressman: 20%

* Lawyers: 18%

* Advertising practitioners: 10%

* Car salesmen: 9%

The good thing about these polls so far at least is that we can

still point to car salesmen, congressmen and lawyers as being beneath

us.

As I shared this poll with some in the newsroom, they had this to

say:

“I wonder why that is?” asked our new City Editor Carol Chambers.

“Because that’s something we really prize -- telling the truth

without fear or favor.”

“That’s disturbing, especially since we’re ranked below TV!”

Marisa O’Neil, our cops and courts reporter, wrote to me in an

e-mail. “Good reporters should be honest and ethical, and I hope I’m

not being naive when I say I think most are. But it’s probably easier

for people to remember the bad apples, the Jayson Blairs and Stephen

Glasses of the world, and allow that to taint their view of the

business. It always shocks me when people act surprised that I didn’t

misquote them, as if they expect that to happen. I guess that

explains why some people are reluctant to talk to reporters.”

Young Matt Ballinger is new to the business. He’s still in

college, studying for his bachelor’s degree but works here

copyediting stories.

“I think people rank journalists poorly, because they don’t really

understand what we do,” Ballinger wrote. “If someone with impeccable

ethics, such as Bob Woodward, is lumped into the same category --

journalist -- as Armstrong Williams, who is not a journalist, that

brings down the profession as a whole.

“Sure there are slime-ball journalists -- there are slime balls in

every profession -- but most reporters are simply trying to get the

facts, convey them to the audience with the depth and elan that the

story warrants, and thus serve readers. Also, people are probably

more inclined to trust someone whose face they can see and tone of

voice they can hear, a TV reporter. Sadly, text has become impersonal

in a TV- and computer-oriented world.”

I wanted a different take, so I went to someone from the do-gooder

profession, my wife. Why do you think people distrust those of us in

the media, honey?

“I don’t think they get the full story,” she said of some

reporters -- not of the Pilot reporters, though, she emphasized. “I

know it’s probably hard to get every little detail, but I don’t think

they write evenly for both sides. They get their opinions. They are

more emotional about picking sides on things. That’s why I don’t read

the paper that much sometimes. It’s not the whole truth.”

Well, she does read the paper for coupons and department store

sales and deals in the Travel section. I know that for sure.

What about nurses, I asked? What makes them such goody two shoes,

sweetheart?

“I think some are and some aren’t,” she said. “A lot of the nurses

I work with have strong morals, based on religion and integrity. They

are willing to help others in need. They go that extra mile that

other people probably wouldn’t.”

That’s hard to fight. In the public’s eye, reporters are godless

heathens, who will step on anybody for a scoop.

But trust me, as someone who’s worked with reporters and editors

for nearly two decades, that’s far from the truth. Just like nurses,

we have bad eggs but also lots and lots of good ones.

Man, we have a lot of work to do to win back that trust.