Caught in Lies

I have never considered that the news I have read/heard/watch was fabricated, at least from a well known or popular news provider.  I have, however, heard before of news stories with incorrect details because many times reporters do not have all of the information concerning what they are writing about. The stories are never fully incorrect though and only one small detail was incorrect.  I have never considered many news stories to be fabricated because the whole purpose of news is to provide the public with accurate and true facts about a particular story.  When a news story is fabricated then we are not getting the degree of news we are expecting to receive and it is more of a story than it is a news story.

I was surprised after reading the two articles because I didn't realize that credible news papers such as the Washington Post and the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal would publish incorrect or factitious news stories such as the ones in the article.  I never would have expected a journalist who worked for a newspaper such as these to fabricate news simply to get a story out. I could have expected less credible companies to publish stories such as these, but it is truly surprising form a company who seems to be so trustworthy.

Yes, I do agree with Jack Shafer's assertion concerning liars in the field of journalism.  I am sure that there are many journalist out there who do not have the skills required to do that job and they would have an easier time making something up than taking the time and effort to get actual information.  Journalism is a fast paced and stressful career and stories are expected to be written and printed in a short period of time.  If someone did not have that proper abilities expected of a journalist then fabricating a part or an entire story would be that easiest way, but not correct way, to gt out a story on time.

I do believe that colleges and universities should be doing a better job of graduating journalism students who can handle the responsibility and pressure of being a journalist.  Many students who are graduating and going into a career of journalism would not be fully prepared for how stressful being a journalist is and because of that would take many shortcut throughout their career.  I am sure that many of the fabricated and incorrect stories circulating today are from students who were not fully prepared during schooling  for the career and are making up stories and adding incorrect information simply to meet deadlines and produce an interesting story.  This is the case even though most consumers want correct information form the news they read.

Yes, I believe that a newspaper ombudsman helps when issues of ethics arise in a news article.  They would help because they put into light that a journalist has made an error or made up a story and this helps to make sure that unethical journalist are seen for who they really are.  As well it is important that someone responds to reader complaints so that the public's voice is heard about factitious stories.