Reading the news is an act of faith. There is an implicit understanding that the words contained in the pages, whether physical or digital, are truthful. Many readers do not even question the reality of the words that they read, trusting the name on the masthead as an assurance. In actuality, journalism is fraught with ethical dilemmas and not all journalists are honest. Additionally, the collapse of print journalism in its traditional forms is causing the weakening of reporting across the county. This conflicted and flawed version of the newsroom, filtered through the biases of David Simon is one of the central plotlines of The Wire’s fifth season. This scene, where they discuss the budget cuts, illustrates some of these issues.
Even though it is not a major factor until the fifth season, journalism and The Baltimore Sun are embedded in the fabric of The Wire. David Simon’s gateway to the streets of Baltimore was his time as a reporter for The Sun. The corruption found in the fifth season is part of what drove Simon away from reporting, and on his path to the creation of The Wire. Nowhere is this influence more visible then the fifth season. Some (like here and here) critique the fifth season as a thinly veiled letter from Simon to The Sun. It is a slice of the structure of a newspaper that journalist (and communication students) are the only one that at privy too. (Authors note: I am a communications major I have not had a single communications class that the phrase “If it bleeds, it leads,” which Gus says in one episode, has NOT been mentioned.) The ethical issues of journalism and the struggle to shine to earn a place in a dying discipline are embodied in reporter Scott Templeton.
Scott Templeton. Image Courtesy HBO's The Wire
Templeton makes a habit of falsifying quotes, rivaling the over the edge McNulty in weaving webs of falsities. This goes against the basic ethical code of journalist. Unlike lawyers and doctors, there is no official set of standards that journalist must swear to uphold. This creates a gray area with journalist. However, one code that is seen, as a baseline in addition to individual paper codes is the Ethic Code of the Society for Professional Journalist (SPJ) This code breaks the proper behavior for journalist into four broader areas and further explicates those obligations. Scott Templeton manages to break all of these, and ends up being praised for it. The first of these obligations is to “Seek the Truth and Report it,” which seems on the surface to be the basic function of a journalist. This is the most detailed of the four SPJ principles, and involves the obvious ideas of determining the accuracy of information and spelling, but goes deeper to include ideas of journalist working to include the full range of diversity in their paper. It also breaches the issue of anonymous sources, which is touched upon in The Wire. The use of anonymous or “background” sources is a practice becoming increasingly more common in journalism. However, this over reliance on anonymous sources can become an issue. In The Wire it allows McNulty to perpetuate his lies to his benefit, without having to take the risk of associating his name with the investigation at first.
The second SPJ principle is to “minimize harm”, or try and reduce the negative impact of a story. For journalist, this means to show respect for both sources and subjects in their reporting, and too report on controversial or potentially damning matters in the most sensitive way possible. SPJ also requires journalists to “act independently,” avoiding conflicts of interest or the potential monetary and personal benefits of a story. The last, area of ethical behavior is the obligation to “be accountable,” which includes acknowledging mistakes and being transparent about the newsgathering process.
Scott Templeton blatantly does not behave in an ethical way. From the first episode it is obvious that he is fabricating sources and quotes. It has been speculated that the character is based on real life Sun reporter and colleague of David Simon Jim Haner, who Simon accused of lying in his reporting. Haner, an outsider to the Baltimore area brought in as new talent after downsizing was also awarded for reporting done on Baltimore’s poor. He controversially described one neighborhood as being nicknamed “Zombieland,” claiming it was used when in fact it does not appear anywhere else.
One of the most famous cases of newsroom fallacy comes from another Marylander, a reporter at Templeton’s dream employer, the New York Times. In 2003, Jayson Blair was forced to resign from the New York Times after it was discovered he had lied in many of his stories, changing bylines, making up quotes and interview and more. Blair was a young favorite of the editor, who had promoted him in spite of warnings from his supervisor. Ultimately, Blair was caught. Today, he ironically works as a life coach in the DC-Baltimore metropolitan area. In this speech at William and Lee’s journalism summit, Blair recounts his mistakes and describes how they fit into the general context of modern journalism.
In the end, Templeton does not have a spectacular downfall like Blair. However, there serve as fictional and real life examples of the failing of journalism and the difficulties with adhering the ethical standards of journalism.
Not So Charming City: The Wire and Urban Life 