April 23, 2024

Journalistic ethics at work

Michael Cook

A team of a team of undercover freelance investigative journalists called the Center for Medical Progress has been making life miserable for abortion provider Planned Parenthood over the past few weeks (while we were on holiday, sorry about the gap in coverage).

In a recent editorial the New York Times accused this unknown group of being, um, journalists. “The Center for Medical Progress video campaign is a dishonest attempt to make legal, voluntary and potentially lifesaving tissue donations appear nefarious and illegal.”

Well, actually, that’s not quite the case. It’s an attempt to see whether the donations are in fact legal and voluntary. Journalists tend to do that sort of thing. Being sceptical about bland reassurances from organisations with budgets of over $1 billion is kind of part of their job description.

This clothespeg-on-the-nose attitude is odd for a newspaper whose motto is “All the News That’s Fit to Print”. And even odder for a newspaper which defied the President of the United States by publishing revelations obtained illegally by whistleblower Edward Snowden. It editorialised at the time:

“Mr. Snowden was clearly justified in believing that the only way to blow the whistle on this kind of intelligence-gathering was to expose it to the public and let the resulting furor do the work his superiors would not.”

Large organisations like the National Security Agency, Phillip Morris or the Galleon Hedge Fund tend to deny that they ever have done, are doing or ever will do anything which is nefarious and illegal. That’s what their public relations staff are paid to say. What is extraordinary is that America’s paper of record has become an unpaid extension of Planned Parenthood’s PR office.

Michael Cook
Is the New York Times too cosy with Planned Parenthood?
1437921720
abortion
New York Times
Planned Parenthood

Latest posts by Michael Cook (see all)

More Stories