Trust is a the coin of the realm to an ethical media organization. Every good newspaper, TV newsroom, radio news station and now podcast or internet news outlet has a code of ethics that is strictly enforced. Strictly enforced. The Society of Professional Journalists (or SPJ) has a code of ethics that is followed by many news organizations or it’s used as a template to form custom ethics codes to serve an outlet’s specific needs.

I just watched a 2003 movie called Shattered Glass about journalist Stephen Glass and his scandal at the magazine “The New Republic”. Forbes started questioning the facts of some of Glass’s articles. It turns out he had completely or partially fabricated 27 out of 41 published stories. Glass was fired and never worked in journalism again. In fact, he attended law school, passed the bar but was not granted a law lic ...