What Is A Journalist's Ethical Duty When a Political Leader Tells An Untruth?

[blastoff]

I think it's a stretch today to think a lot of journalists would even know when they're being had by some politician.

 

[California Girl]

Thanks all. Great responses thus far.

The question raised in the OP came from a documentary I saw called "The War You Don't See." As the title implies, it was about how the media rarely reports what is really going on in a war because the government does not want them to out of fear that if the public really know what was happening, public pressure would put a stop to the war instantly.

The example given (of course) was the statements made by Colin Powell, Bush, Rice and Cheney designed to drum up public support for the invasion of Iraq. But this kind of stuff is not entirely Republican in nature - all administrations have done it. WW II had more than its share of governmental bull shit and, as my Best Friend Oddball points out, LBJ certainly did his part with the Gulf of Tonkin fiasco.

I don't want this thread to turn into partisan finger pointing - the focus is on journalistic responsibility rather than governmental propaganda, regardless of the political party putting the propaganda out.

Yet again, you take a complex issue and turn it into a 'black or white' check box exercise. So, this leaves me wondering whether you are just a total fucking hack with an agenda or jack shit stupid.

 

[jillian]

A political leader makes a statement that is later determined to not only have been untrue, but to have been a lie, i.e., the political leader knew it was false when it was uttered. The statement is reported by the media as if it is factually correct. It is not questioned.

Has the media failed to do something it should have done by not questioning the statement and/or by leading the public to believe it is a true statement?

What is the responsibility of journalism with respect to statements made by political leaders which they report? If a journalist knows that a political leader is lying, does he or she have a duty to say as much? Or is it only a journalist's duty to report what is said, without "passing judgement" on the utterance?

perhaps we should ask judy miller....