Truthtelling

Topic: Watch the Truthtelling clip from the Newsroom and offer your thoughts on what the reporter should have done. What is the responsibility of a journalist when he/she knows a source is lying?

Unfortuntely, this YouTube video may have gotten me hooked on the television series, only if it is available on Netflix though, considering I'm a binge-watcher. Fortunately, I'm going to actually assess the assignment now.

So Sloan, the woman who gets into trouble, did what I probably could not have done. She tells the world on national telivision something that was supposed to be off the record. The only thing I can think of that actually makes this okay is that it was about health factors. She had information concerning the people in and around Japan and some life-threatening issues that were not surfacing. I understand her heart was in it and she may have saved some people but I believe the way she went about it caused chaos and was very wrong.

A journalist’s responsibility when he or she knows a source is lying is to call them out on it and provide facts, but if they refuse to cooperate then I would say the interview was over. What is the point in extracting information from someone if you know some of it is false? That would then make that person a liar and non-credible so the source is dead to you.