Ethics in Journalism - A Thing of the Past

According to one writer on today’s opinion page, the BNR should not be “forcing the news” regarding the school board’s investigation of Lance Alwin’s job performance.

I find it amazing. The BNR puts up a poll on its website, just as it has nearly every week for at least the past few years. Nice idea. Get a feel for the pulse of the community. In the past, the BNR has conveniently placed poll results on the same page as their opinion to substantiate their position on issues – but not this one. In fact, this one time, the BNR backs away from its poll findings and presents arguments undermining their own polling!

Why? It is apparent the BNR has taken lessons from the school district in selective disclosure. The poll results didn’t suit the BNR’s top-secret (like we can’t figure it out) position on Lance Alwin or the Baraboo School Board’s investigation into his job performance. Instead of simply sharing the poll findings just as they did with the quarry issue which garnered more than twice as many votes, or putting a disclosure on all poll results “fit to print”, the BNR decided to attack its own polling methodology – but only on the Alwin issue.

I see their point. The BNR online poll is hardly a scientific sample. They are right. My point is they pick and choose, dodge and weave facts to suit their agenda. Twisted. Our little hometown newspaper has taken a hard left and suffered a fate of many of today’s larger newspapers. Ethics in local journalism are a faint memory. We, the readers, see it. How sad.