Editorial: Steubenville Calls Attention to Deteriorating Journalistic Integrity

Here at Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, students are taught to adhere to the highest of ethical standards in preparation for post-graduation life in the industry.Remain unbiased. Be truthful and get the facts straight. Respect privacy, but still exercise your First Amendment rights. Do not misrepresent or mislead. Do not distort. Do not plagiarize. Avoid stereotypes. Be accountable. Simple things that respected journalists practice and future journalists can be proud of.At “The New Political,” we believe that common ethical practices—so dear to our principles and so necessary to our fragile industry—have, most recently and within the past decade, been thrown by the wayside.Everyone’s sick of hearing about CNN senior news anchors Candy Crowley and Poppy Harlow’s shameful portrayal of Steubenville convicted rapists as lost potential, but there are more issues that need to be discussed.First, let’s get this out of the way: In no shape or form is it ever okay for media—or anyone, for that matter—to publicly sympathize with convicted rapists. Sure, Candy Crowley, we believe you when you say that the trial was “very emotional,” as quoted in “The Post,” but it’s not your or Poppy Harlow’s job to sympathize with the teenage boys convicted of raping a 16-year-old girl just because it was emotional.And as far as these boys’ “promising futures,” how promising could they have been? Maybe they were good students and maybe they were star athletes that could have gone on to be star athletes in college or even in professional football, but they are rapists. Studies show the leading indicator that a person is capable of sexual violence is if they have a record of sexual violence and statistics show more than half of reported rapists were recidivists. So the two rapists’ futures probably promised more rape.What about the victim’s promising future? Why is CNN’s report not concerned about the emotional, mental, social and physical trauma the victim will suffer for the rest of her life.The main idea: less sympathy to rapists, more sympathy to victims. Got it? Okay, let’s move on.Not only does this case bring up larger issues about victim-shaming, celebrating rape culture and Steubenville community member’s potential roles in covering up the case, it raises questions about media ethics, function ratings and money play in producing the news.The Steubenville rape trial brought national attention. Large media outlets, such as CNN and Fox News, covered the trial to a much lengthier extent than the common sexual violence trial. The problem with this coverage is it didn’t really adhere to the ethical standards that we journalism students are expected to abide by.Another long-accepted ethical standard was broken: media outlets are not supposed to reveal the name of any minors involved with the trial. It’s called respecting the lawful interests of third parties.It’s just a matter a principle, people.While Fox News opted to not reveal the names of the convicted rapists, Fox, MSNBC and CNN all revealed the defendant’s names and the name of the victim. A 16-year-old girl. According to @UniteWomenOrg, “She has been getting death threats...this is completely irresponsible!”What are you teaching journalism students when you deliberately disregard accepted ethical standards? Why would you behave this way?A simplistic answer would be ratings. Ratings, readership, views, clicks – they all drive competition within the journalism industry and sometimes lead to poor decision making and careless reporting, such as the above incident. High ratings, and having the story first, translates into money. Money for the corporation and money for the industry.Fox News is owned by News Corp., which collected $33.4 billion in revenue in 2011. CNN is owned by Time Warner, Inc., boasting $29 billion in 2011. Comcast Corporation, with $55.8 billion in revenue in 2011, owns MSNBC. All of these corporations own multiple news organizations.Perhaps it’s a bit farfetched to say that corporate monopolization of the media industry leads to lax journalistic principles, but it’s an issue that plagues the industry.A Gallup poll released in 2012 showed that public distrust of the media is at a new high, 60 percent, with fewer Americans following political news than previous years. A 2009 Pew Research Center survey, which also reported record-high percentages of distrust, said respondents did not find the news media credible or held little faith in the media.Journalists are meant to be trusted by society. They’re supposed to be do-gooders who act as a watchdog on government, inform the public and present their audiences with news in the public interest. But just like common people probably don’t trust Wall Street executives because of their much-publicized greed, trust in the media by the common person has and will be on the decline.So let’s bring back trust. Let’s bring back ethics and protection of minors. Let’s bring back sympathy for victims.Because we can’t let money erode our integrity.