His crime is not fabricating articles but taking a journalistic guideline ("Do whatever you have to do" to get the story) to unfortunate extremes.
Even when they finally get to it, this crucial element is presented as a quaint kerfuffle marked by "some reporters and media pundits" questioning the ethics of the situation -- as opposed to an elementary journalistic guideline that is vital if you are building a 21st century media company combining the best of the old media and the best of the new.
Clearly, they're exploiting the lawless, Brave New World of the blogsophere, where, since they're Not Quite Journalists, they don't feel constrained by any of those pesky journalistic ethics guidelines.
The Society of Professional Journalists, a professional organization with regional chapters all over the United States, has good guidelines for journalistic ethics on their website.[3].
The Times's policy guideline on journalistic integrity says, in part, "Pictures of news situations must not be posed"; many news organizations have similar policies.
The Samaritans have guidelines covering both journalistic and creative depictions of suicide, and they are very clear: avoid glamorising suicide and avoid giving details of the methods.
While most of the allotted time in the final workshop was dedicated to putting in place workable guidelines for good journalistic practice, I provided additional presentations, case studies, exercises and examples of how codes of conduct are formulated, what other countries' media had adopted as ethical standards, and how such codes can be implemented.
It provides fundamental guidelines on spelling, grammar, punctuation, usage and journalistic style, with special sections on reporting business and sports.
Under the Ofcom guidelines, each station should still maintain a local journalistic presence to ensure that a high-quality local radio news service is provided.
Curiously, the association's guidelines do not preclude an analyst from creating a composite character (as journalistic ethics do).
