Journalism Is Not Fiction

Sixteen young journalists inhabit my block six high school journalism class. So far, only two or three of them have professed an interest in actually becoming professional journalists and only one is especially serious about this pursuit. Nevertheless, I call all 16 of them journalists—regardless of their degree of interest--because every teacher should think of their students as potentialities to become. I would expect any math teacher to think of all 26 of her math students as mathematicians and any history teacher to think of all of his students as historians. To think otherwise is to shortchange the students and their potential to be.

I’d like to think that this attitude is partly responsible for the fact that literally scores of George Mason students who have taken journalism over the past few decades have found themselves becoming major players in their college newspapers as writers and editors. A great many of these students have become professional journalists in capacities ranging from writers to editors to photographers. Some of these former students have worked for major publications like The Washington Post and others have worked for trade publications, and still others have worked in broadcast news. Whatever their position, their common link is that they began their journalistic pursuits in high school. Ironically, journalism, which is an elective at George Mason High School, is not usually considered a vocational course, yet it arguably has laid the foundation for more professional careers than almost any course.

The 16 journalists in block six are now very familiar with a cast of characters that are considered personae non-gratae not only in professional circles, but also in our class. This dramatis personae of malignant players includes Jayson Blair, a journalist who betrayed the trust of his New York Times editors and readers, and Stephen Glass who did the same to readers of The New Republic. It also includes Janet Cooke, Washington Post reporter, who many years ago won the Pulitzer Prize for her exceptionally powerful—and exceptionally made up—stories about a little boy being raised in the midst of crack addicts. The Post returned the coveted award after the truth of Cooke’s make-believe was revealed. The list of offenders was recently lengthened by several other miscreants including USA Today’s Jack Kelley, whose dramatic and riveting prose reporting may have been more suitable to novel writing. The students are familiar with these fakers as role models of what not to follow, what not to become. Even if none of the current 16 young journalists ever becomes a future journalist, they all need to know the basic premise that the only thing journalists have going for them is truth. Truth is the bond forged between journalists and their readers or listeners and any story that a journalist presents that is not wholly truthful threatens that bond.

For me, journalism is one of the great professions to aspire toward. Many of my own personal heroes, such as John Chancellor, Walter Cronkite, Edward R. Murrow, Ted Koppel, and Falls Church’s own Herb Kaplow, are larger-than-life figures who have dedicated their lives to the pursuit of a truth that many try to obfuscate. Great journalists have defied all odds and have pursued the truth with an uncommon conviction. Great journalists would never stoop to fabrication or even shading of the truth.

So how is it that there seems to be an epidemic of professional—and I use that adjective loosely—journalists who seem to think that journalism is a subset of creative writing? It seems that some journalists made a wrong turn and attended fiction-writing classes when they thought they were going to Journalism 101.

Had they found the right classroom and paid attention in Journalism 101 they would have learned certain basic principles: That truth is truth. Facts are facts. Made up facts are fiction. Fiction is not compatible with journalism. Sources must be legitimate. Sources must be identified. Quotes must be verifiable.

In their first semester final exam, the high school journalists showed that they had absorbed these lessons at the tender age of 16 and 17. “A good journalist has to have a code of ethics because you are relaying events to the reader. You can’t misquote or impose your own views, or the readers will not know if what they are reading is fact or just fiction,” wrote Chris, a high school senior.

“Journalists are the intelligence agencies of the world, and if their sources are not accurate then you could have dire consequences,” wrote Niles, another senior journalist. “An ethical journalist is one who writes articles truthfully, does not make things up, does not compromise about anything in the story. Yellow journalism is awful and misrepresents information and hurts the newspaper’s reputation. The public will be misinformed and that is the opposite of what a good journalist hopes to achieve,” wrote Omar, a junior. “Bad journalism leaves a stain on the free press, which some argue is the most important part of a free society,” wrote Stephen, a senior. If high school journalists can master this crucial information, why can’t college-educated pros?