Dan Rather's reverberations

CBS broke a cardinal rule of journalism. It published information it hadn't verified. Then it compounded that error by stubbornly sticking by the story until many other news sources had credibly deconstructed it. The only option left for news anchor Dan Rather was the humiliating apology he issued Monday evening.

We know that for many people, faith in the credibility of major news organizations evaporated long ago. When Jason Blair was found to have invented and plagiarized stories in the New York Times, when NBC admitted it rigged pickup trucks with explosives to dramatize an alleged safety concern, and when Rather and others at CBS attempted to justify sloppy reporting by saying the documents in question were, in effect, forged but accurate, it just reinforced the notion that the American media are more interested in agendas than truth.

And yet, the overwhelming majority of those who ply this craft do indeed hold the pursuit of truth as sacrosanct. The very fact that all the bad news about journalistic malpractice has been extensively reported in — where else? — the news media ought to attest to that. There is no industry-wide cover-up.

Barely two weeks ago, the Society of Professional Journalists held its annual convention in New York City, where the principles of objectivity and professionalism were again drummed home, led by speakers such as the venerable Walter Cronkite. The society — the largest journalism organization in the country with about 10,000 members — has a detailed code of ethics that is divided into four major subheadings: "seek truth and report it"; "minimize harm"; "act independently"; and "be accountable."

Under the first heading are these specific admonitions: "Test the accuracy of information from all sources and exercise care to avoid inadvertent error. Deliberate distortion is never permissible"; and "Distinguish between advocacy and news reporting. Analysis and commentary should be labeled and not misrepresent fact or context."

Rather appears to have violated at least one of these. But then, virtually every major scandal to hit the news business in recent years can be traced to a violation of something deliberately spelled out in the code.

That doesn't make the code, or many others similar to it at this and other newspapers, of no meaning. Nor does it mean all news organizations are suspect.

At the Deseret Morning News, we treat the duty to report truth as sacred. Deliberately violating this principle is a fireable offense. We are, of course, human, and we make mistakes. But we strive to identify and correct those mistakes as quickly as possible.

We know that other credible mainstream news sources feel the same, and that is why we mourn the trouble at CBS and the black eye it has given all of us.