reckless disregard of the truth

Yesterday I posted a link to a story on the Kansas City Star’s website about the continuing dog saga of the Katrina victim who signed over his dog to the fiancé of a guy I work with and then wanted it back. I sent an e-mail to the guy who did the television stories which I linked in a previous blog, and he responded that the Star printed information “which we verified to be false.”

I also received a second e-mail from them responding to my question about whether this would be considered reckless disregard of the truth. They said, “no.”

I don’t know all of the facts, and I haven’t seen the actual bill of sale. I’m certain that when anyone tells a story, they have their own personal viewpoint represented, so I can’t be absolutely certain that I know everything.

What I do know is this. When the news media attacks someone who has done nothing criminal—there has never been any question that the rightful and legal ownership of the dog changed hands—then we have crossed the line from responsible reporting to tabloid journalism.

I recently saw George Clooney on The Daily Show, talking about his new movie about Edward R. Murrow. That prompted me to pull the biography of Murrow from my library on the living room wall of chez Jimbo’s girlfriend, and begin to read it, preparing for when I go see the movie. Murrow was a journalist who would use advocacy journalism to take issue with people like Hitler and McCarthy, but he had the judgment not to attack private citizens.

In my college days, I remember that there was a 19” portable television in one corner of the newsroom of the University Daily Kansan. At 5:30 in the afternoon, the face of Walter Cronkite and the CBS evening news would come on and the racket of all the manual typewriters would stop and everyone would listen to what he had to say. Many say that Cronkite’s advocacy journalism may had led America to change its policies on the prosecution of the war in Viet-Nam.

Now, I’m sure that many of you are practically shouting at your computer monitors, “Jimbo, how can this dog story be elevated to the same level as stopping Hitler and McCarthy and ending the war in Viet-Nam? Let it go, Jimbo. Get a life.”

And, you are probably right.

Maybe a mutt that can predict natural disasters two weeks in advance is not a story worthy of the memories of Murrow and Cronkite. Opps! Wait a minute. Old Walter is still alive.

As our traditions and our values are interred one by one, as Murrow was and Walter and I will be sometime (we hope long down the road for both of us), we can only look at the state of tabloid journalism today and say, stop. We can look at local television reporting and suggest they concentrate on what is important and stop harassing these poor people.

I could go on about this forever, but I hear they are going to have something on Entertainment Tonight about Brad and Jen and Angelina, so I have to run.