Rarity of the Day: Newspaper Ethics

The Sacramento Bee fired a veteran sports writer today for writing his article from TV sources:

An apology to our readers
Published 2:15 a.m. PDT Wednesday, August 20, 2003

On Aug. 7, a story on the cover of the Sports section about the Giants game at Pacific Bell Park was filed by a Bee reporter who was not at the game. The reporter watched the game on television at a location away from the stadium. He filed his story without telling editors at The Bee his true location, leaving the impression he covered the game from the ballpark. In addition, it was discovered later that the story included quotes from other media outlets that were unattributed and old, made to reporters on a previous occasion before the day of the game. The story violated basic journalistic values and ethics as practiced by The Bee. The reporter involved, Jim Van Vliet, no longer works at the newspaper.

The Bee regrets the situation and apologizes to its readers.
Armando Acuña - Sports editor

Okay, now imagine if major publishers like the NY Times, Wash. Post, WSJ, etc. etc., held their news staff to such high standards. Bush might have been booted out of office a year ago!