7 Out Of 10 Journalists Say They Faced Bias Accusation

Being a journalist is a profession that means walking in minefields, according to a new survey — which found that 7 out of 10 journalists had been accused of bias in the past year:

More than half of newspaper journalists in a recent survey believe an unethical or unprofessional incident occurred in their newsroom within the past five years, while seven out of 10 said they had been accused of bias in the past 12 months, according to a study released today by the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

But at least 70% of those polled more often pointed to “factors beyond their control” as the cause of such poor ethical perceptions, rather than their own newspapers’ actions.

More than 30% of respondents, meanwhile, noted problems with sources — anonymous or not — providing misleading or inaccurate information, with the same percentage seeking legal advice on such stories.

The Editor and Publisher piece goes on to note that the Medill survey’s conclusions used 527 randomly chosen newspaper journalists at 218 daily papers across the country. The study asked them about inaccurate, misleading, or fabricated news.

“Many journalists believe that the recent sins of other newspapers and media taint their own newspapers and contribute to the public’s diminished confidence in newspapers generally,” said Mary Ellen Shearer, assistant dean of the Medill School and co-director of the Medill News Service. She is co-author of the report with Medill Associate Professor David Nelson and researcher Steven Rolandelli.

“We found that the majority of journalists show strong support for
their newspaper’s standards and policies, and almost 90% say they would report suspected unethical behavior by a peer to
management,” said Nelson.

And there was also this finding on an issue that has become an increasing concern in the journalistic and literary worlds, it found this:

More than half of the surveyed journalists reported working with “a peer involved in fabrication, plagiarism or other deliberate misconduct,” the survey stated. It added that 20% believed such wrong behavior should be punished more rigorously.

(TMV NOTE: Yours truly graduated from Medill’s graduate school program.)