Al Tompkins
Al Tompkins
conversion entire newsroom totally
What's new is that entire newsrooms that once were one thing are totally different. The conversion of the traditional newsroom to the VJ newsroom is different.
information reason unless withhold
Unless there's overwhelming reason to withhold the information, the public's need to know should come first.
among confirm governor himself information seems
When the governor himself seems to confirm the information, there are not many among us who wouldn't go with it.
There's no qualification for how you know what you know.
acting anyone avoid capacity clearly code conflicts ethics interest journalism public says serving society
The Society of Professional Journalists in their code of ethics says that journalists should avoid conflicts of interest real or perceived. Clearly it would be a conflict of interest for anyone acting in a journalism capacity to simultaneously be serving as a public servant.
answer changing easy seems
It's never been an easy answer. And it now seems like the answer is changing more rapidly.
ability confuses harmful obviously public reporting
In journalism, anything that we do as journalists that confuses the public about our ability to be independent in our reporting is obviously harmful to journalism.
answer determine grant order
In order to grant such a shield, you have to determine who is a journalist, and there is no satisfactory answer to that question.
believed careful gives people reason
For those people who already believed we weren't careful enough as journalists, this gives them more reason to believe that.