January 16, 2018 • Code Words
By Alex Veeneman
"Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?," President Donald Trump reportedly asked Thursday at a White House meeting discussing immigration policies and protections for people from Haiti, El Salvador and the African continent.
Screen capture of President-elect Donald Trump's first press conference since winning the November 8 elections – as viewed from CSPAN.
The president's remark made news organizations around the world decide how to handle words that are viewed by many as offensive. In this case, news organizations needed to engage with their audiences on how they would print or broadcast the word.
In their reporting of the meeting and the president's remark, ABC and CBS did not utter the word on air, while NBC did, prefaced by a warning from anchor Lester Holt. NPR initially didn't use the word but then changed its mind, and had its standards and practices editor, Mark Memmott, on Friday's All Things Considered to discuss why.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's publisher asked journalists there to remove the language from the AP lede. No explanation was immediately available.
Our publisher is requesting us to remove @realDonaldTrump's "vulgar language" from the lede in our @AP story about his vulgar language.
— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (@PittsburghPG) January 12, 2018
The utterance of that word was an element necessary to reporting the story because it was said by the president.
SPJ's Code of Ethics encourages journalists to seek truth and report it, but they must also minimize harm. It's also essential that news organizations explain their actions as to why they did or did not use the word – as part of the call to be accountable and transparent.
While many news organizations were upfront as to how they were treating the language, some, like The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, were not, and owe their readers an explanation as to why the language was removed.
If this occasion has any lessons, let it be this – honesty always is the best policy. The more transparent a journalist is, the more credible they are. In this age of information, credibility is essential, and the act of transparency is something news organizations must keep in mind in their pursuit of the truth.
Alex Veeneman is a freelance journalist in Minneapolis, and a member of SPJ's Ethics and FOI Committees. You can interact with him on Twitter @alex_veeneman.
The views expressed unless otherwise specified are that of the author's, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Committee, the board and staff of the Society of Professional Journalists, nor its members.
Tagged under: Code of Ethics, Donald Trump, Ethics, Harm, Immigration, Journalism, Journalism ethics, Media Ethics, Minimize Harm, President Donald Trump, Press, Shithole, Society of Professional Journalists, Trump, Vulgarity, White House, media, press ethics
The same old Facebook
The 'power' of respect in the newsroom