What has happened to Journalistic Integrity?

[Kristin]

Kick 'em when they're up. Kick 'em when they're down. Kick 'em all 
around. We all know that crap is king. Give 'em Dirty Laundry.
 -Don Henley

Okay I'm going to rant a bit here based on the MSNBC article by 
Christopher Noxon. 

What ever happened to asking Who?, What?, When?, Where?, Why? and How?
When I was majoring in Journalism, before switching to Marketing, 
this is what we were taught. Know your facts and report on them, not 
on your opinion. Of course this was back in circa 1984-85.

However, in today's world of Tabloid Journalism that no longer seems 
to be the case. Even a lot of the hard news programs have resorted to 
sensational journalism. Anything to get the story first, research and 
facts be damned. We can always retract later. 

Here's the new journalistic standard, IMO. Print or show a story for 
the titillation factor and by all means don't get both sides of the 
story. Make sure you skew the piece towards whichever side can cause 
the most controversy, because then your Q rating will go through the 
roof. Oh, and this is most important, make sure the headline or 
teaser is as inflammatory as possible. This way you'll *hook* the 
reader/viewer.

The media has become less of an information source and more of a 
entertainment entity. I'm not saying that all journalists are bad; 
there are those that practice the 5 W's and do proper research. But 
just take look at your local news and you'll see what I'm talking 
about. Objective journalism is going the way of the Dodo bird.

Cheers,

Kristin   ::who steps off her soap box::